Aggrieved pensioners say they are not backing down on their will to get government to exempt them from the ongoing debt restructuring as they continue to picket Finance Ministry.
Joining them for the second time, former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo has backed the calls for evidence of the Finance Minister’s commitment to honour bonds.
She rejoined protestors at the ministry’s premises who continued to demonstrate their displeasure against the programme which they say will leave them in a sorry state.
Government has assured persons who refused to participate in the just-ended initiative that they will be paid their outstanding coupons and maturing principals.
During the protest, the Convenor of the Pension Bondholders Forum, Dr Adu Anane Antwi, said even though the Minister has allowed the pensioners a self-exempt option, it is not enough.
“We want to be exempted, just as pension funds didn’t want to be part of self-exempt. The medical association didn’t want to be part of self-exempt. They stood their ground and said they exempt us and the government didn’t tell them to opt-out,” he said.
Sophia Akuffo backs this assertion adding that a mere assurance will not suffice without as little as “a note of acknowledgement.”
She is looking forward to a communique from the Minister to this effect adding that “paper talks, empty talk flies with the wind.”
The stateswoman is baffled that some groups have been communicated to in writing while other pensioners are supposed to take the Minister’s word for it.
“When I cannot fathom the reason for something being done in a particular way – especially when it’s is being done for others but not being done for others, I start getting suspicious,” she explained on Tuesday.
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