A leading member of the New Patriotic Party, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, has stated that the gesture by the former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, to picket the Finance Ministry together with pensioner bondholders was done in error.
According to him, the offer to self-exempt has been given to pensioners, therefore, there is no need to picket when they could just self-exempt.
Even though her intentions may be genuine, Gabby said, he added that she did not have a full grasp of the issues.
In a series of tweets on February 12, 2023, he wrote: “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 Govt 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 added.
The placard Sophia Akuffo wielded on February 10, 2023, when she joined Pensioner bondholders to picket the Finance Ministry read “We use our bond yields to pay our rents, medical bills, electricity bills, water bills.”
According to her, it is unlawful for the government to include pensioners in the debt exchange programme.
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