A prominent member of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Gabby Otchere-Darko, has disagreed with the “fuss” made by former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo regarding the inclusion of pensioners in the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.
Even though he sympathizes with those picketing, Mr. Otchere-Darko, a cousin of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, added in a tweet on Sunday that he finds it challenging to comprehend why they are requesting to be exempted from a voluntary improved offer programme.
“The former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, may mean well but she erred big time in her basic appreciation of the issues. Rather than asking the Gov’t for exemption at this late hour, why did she simply not ‘exempt’ herself from exchanging her original bond for the new one!”
“Why picket over something you don’t like (the improved offer) when you have the right not to sign up? Sorry, but I struggle to get her emotional outburst over-exemption! I hope she won’t volunteer to picket tomorrow and on the same issues when the time to sign up has expired,” he said.
“For a former CJ to take up a noble cause such as she did but at a such late hour when all was done and for all that publicity, she owed it to herself and her social standing to have understood the issues far better than what she exhibited last Friday. She is bigger than that,” he added.
The former Chief Justice, on Friday, February 10, 2023, joined some retirees in a picket outside the Finance Ministry.
She characterized the government’s action as blatant disrespect for the elderly who have given their lives to the advancement of the country and as pure wickedness.
The government was also urged by Madam Sophia Akuffo to be open with the people of Ghana about what caused the current economic crisis and how all of the loans were used.
If the government does not exclude pensioners from the Domestic Debt Exchange Program, she threatened to file a lawsuit.
