Former Chief Justice, Sofia Akuffo, has noted that it is sheer wickedness on the part of government to continue taunting the aged in the country over its Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
Madam Sophia Akuffo joined the many pensioners picketing at the Finance Ministry over the government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).
Engaging the media on Friday, she stated that “I find this wicked, disrespectful, unlawful and I find it totally wrong. You don’t solve your problems by sacrificing your aged. That is the last thing you should do, especially when you don’t have any services that are geared towards the comfort and relief of the aged.”
She noted that government holds no power to dictate to investors when they would receive interest on their investment.
“Quite a number of people here today, when they retired last two years [ago] they 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 former Chief Justice bemoaned the inability of government to account for the loans it went for which has plundered the economy in a devastating state.
“Why are we in the mess? Nobody has fully explained to us, yes we took loans, 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 if you are doing something serious because we have seen these sorts of things too many times.
Since government launched the DDEP in December 2022, many stakeholders including pensioners and Individual bond holders have demanded that they be exempted.
However, government is yet to give into their demands despite making some adjustment to the conditions in the programme.
Finance Minister is optimistic that before March 2023, government would be able to implement the programme in order to receive a credit facility worth 3 million US dollars from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
He has however warned that the economy would crush should government fail to roll out the programme.