Gabby Slams Former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo For Not Understanding The Issues Before Joining Protest

• Gabby Otchere-Darko has expressed disappointment in the decision by former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo to join protests by pensioner bondholders
• The NPP stalwart feels the retired legal luminary did not understand the issues before joining the protesters who are demanding the exclusion of their investments from the debt exchange
• According to Otchere-Darko, the finance ministry or government was not forcing any individual bondholder to join the programme

A stalwart of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Gabby Otchere-Darko has taken to social media to slam former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo for joining the protests by pensioner bondholders against the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP).

Justice Akuffo joined the protests by the bondholders, most of them elderly people, on Friday, February 10, 2023, to press the finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta to explicitly exclude their investments in the widely-condemned DDEP.

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They say the proposals under the debt restructuring would significantly affect the bond yields they survive on.

But in a series of tweets on Sunday, February 12, Othere-Darko who wields significant influence in the Nana Akufo-Addo administration despite not holding a portfolio in the government said the respected former Chief Justice erred when she joined the protests.

"For a former CJ to take up a noble cause such as she did but at 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," president Akufo-Addo's cousin tweeted.

Gabby's main point is that the DDEP is entirely voluntary and the government, through the finance ministry, was not forcing any individual bondholder to join.

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"I was among those who pleaded for the exemption of pensioners. But, the Govt had to balance all that with the need to protect the economy for the 33m population and settled on the 15% yield maturing in 5yrs instead of 15, and that the individual was FREE not to participate." Othcere-Darko dded.

He added:

"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."

Ghana's former Chief Justice joins protests in an unprecedented move

Earlier, YEN.com.gh covered the story about Justice Sophia Akuffo's decision to join tens of pensioner bondholders who have been picketing at the finance ministry to demand their exclusion from the controversial domestic debt exchange programme.

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The retired Chief Justice held a placard that read "we use our bond yields to pay our rents..." during the protest on Friday, February 10, 2023.

To many, the unprecedented sighting of a former Chief Justice among protesters demonstrates that key stakeholders are against the government's policy to stagger interest payments on its domestic debts.

Source: YEN.com.gh