Sophia Akuffo, a former chief justice, defended her choice to join pensioners in publicly protesting their inclusion in the Domestic Debt Exchange Program (DDEP).

On Friday, February 10, she participated in a protest of pensioners outside the Ministry of Finance in Accra.

While spilling out her frustration to journalists in Accra, she said, “These are all people who have worked, they have worked very hard, they could have left the country when others were going but they stayed, they worked for the nation.

“We have had our ups and downs. A lot of us were from generations where we were encouraged to save for tomorrow and all that. We have been through times where all your savings become nonsense because of some government policies, then over the years, bit by bit, people have become more confident in the economy and investments.

“Quite a number of people here today, when they retired last two years have put everything into government bonds, it is a contract and now all of a sudden, you virtually want to force them to agree with you that the repayment of the yield of their investment should be as you dictate it. Why?”

The government’s inability to account for the borrowings made throughout the years was another point of contention for her and she did not hesitate in expressing it as captured below;

“Why are we in the mess? Nobody has fully explained to us, yes we took debt, what was it used for? and where is the accountability? Exactly what was it used for? You are not telling us about how you are going to be able to make things better but just that ‘help me and I help you’, no, you help yourself first, let me see you doing something serious because we have seen these sorts of things too many times.

“I am over 70 years now, I am no longer government employed, my mouth has been ungagged and I am talking and I am saying that we have failed and it is important that the elderly should be respected. I find this wicked, I find it disrespectful, I find it unlawful, I find it totally wrong.”

The pensioners have been picketing at the Ministry since Monday, February 6 to be exempted from the Programme.

The deadline for voluntary subscribers to join the Programme is Friday after the Ministry gave another extension from Tuesday, February 7.

Source – Tru News Report

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