The Defunct Banks and Other Financial Institutions Network (DEBOFIN) has commended former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, for joining pensioner bondholders to picket the premises of the Ministry of Finance last Friday.

In a statement, DEBOFIN described the act as a demonstration of “motherhood.”

The Network said: “You exercised leadership, advanced our democratic frontiers by promoting the concerns of a voiceless and vulnerable group by speaking truth to power under an insensitive finance minister.

“Your action is only reminiscent of the iconic Obaa Yaa Asantewaa, a woman of much sensitivity and bravery who stood up for her people in war. You’ve demonstrated motherhood of conscience and empathy and we are grateful for speaking out at this time.”

According to the Network, it saw “the incompetence and insensitivity of the finance minister, the Governor of BOG and the entire economic management team in their approach towards the 2017 banking sector clean up.”

It noted “that is when we started failing as a country.”

It further said that: “Time has now exposed them and we call on well-meaning Ghanaians including former president John Agyekum Kufour to impress upon the president to withdraw their engagement, restore confidence into the financial service sector and the economy as a whole.”

The Network also called “for drastic reduction in government expenditure for 2023, the size of government and its missions, a reduction in wasteful spending and other corruption related activities.”

You don't respect old age - Ex-CJ tells gov't

Justice Sophia Akuffo, who partook in one of the pickets on Friday, 10 February 2023, said the government must show respect to the elderly rather than be wicked toward them by including their pension funds in the domestic debt exchange programme.

Speaking to journalists among the picketing pensioners, the former Chief Justice said: “We have had our ups and downs. A lot of us were from generations where we were encouraged to save for tomorrow and all that.

"We have been through times where all your savings become nonsense because of some government policies, then over the years, bit by bit, people have become more confident in the economy and investments.

“Quite a number of people here today, when they retired last two years, put everything into government bonds; it is a contract and, now, all of a sudden, you virtually want to force them to agree with you that the repayment of the yield of their investment should be as you dictate it. Why?

“Why are we in the mess? Nobody has fully explained to us.

"Yes, we took loans, what was it used for? And where is the accountability? Exactly what was it used for? You are not telling us about how you are going to be able to make things better but just that, ‘help me and I help you’. No, you help yourself first, let me see if you are doing something serious because we have seen these sorts of things too many times”, she noted.

“I am over 70 years now. I am no longer government-employed, my mouth has been ungagged, and I am talking, and I am saying that we have failed, and it is important that the elderly should be respected".

"I find this wicked, I find it disrespectful, I find it unlawful, I find it totally wrong.”