Former National Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC) Bernard Mornah, has said that the pensioner bondholders are partly to be blame for their current state.
He said he warned them about the Finance Minister but the pensioners ignored his warning and rather heeded to a meeting with Ken Ofori-Atta.
“[They] put a hold at that time when we were telling them Ken Ofori-Atta should not be believed.”
Mr Mornah said this on Tuesday, May 9, when sharing his thoughts on the recent picketting by the pensioner bondholders.
The retirees who decided not to subscribe to the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP) returned to the Ministry on Monday, May 8 to demand payment of their mature coupons and principals.
According to them, government and, for that matter, the Finance Ministry has failed in payment on almost all the timelines given.
Convenor Dr Adu Anana Atwi on Monday told journalists that until they are paid they will continue to hang around the premises of the Ministry
Speaking about the action and plight of the pensioner bondholders, Mr Mornah said when they staged the first picketting in February, Arise Ghana Movement, the group he is Convenor for, joined forces with #FixTheGhana Movement to back the pensioner bondholders.
But he said the pensioner bondholders ignored their advice to speak with Mr Ofori-Atta when the minister called for a meeting with the protesting retirees.
Mr Ofori-Atta, according to the former National Chairman of the PNC, wanted the pensioners out of his premises in order to make a good case to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“Because Ken Ofori-Atta needed their absence at the Ministry to go and say my people have accepted.”
He expressed sympathies with the pensioner bondholders but said Mr Ofori-Atta cannot be trusted to pay their mature coupons and principals.