The Individual Bondholders Forum has hinted at a decision to commence picketing at the Black Star Square starting Monday, February 20 until the government pays the interests on matured bonds of its members.

In an interview on Eyewitness News, the convenor of the Forum, Martin Kpebu said they needed to toe the line of the pensioner bondholders who continuously picketed at the Ministry of Finance until their concerns and calls for exemption from the domestic debt exchange programme were granted.

The convenor called on members of the Forum and the general public “to drive in their cars and trotro and come to the Independence Square, so we can have them [government] do the right thing.”

Mr. Kpebu further indicated that the government’s failure to pay the dividends on matured bonds to members of the Forum heightens their scepticism of the ability of the government to safely guard their funds till the first maturity date under the domestic debt exchange programme in five years to come.

“He [Ken Ofori-Atta] spoke at length in Parliament on Thursday [February 16] and he didn’t mention when he was going to pay the bonds that have matured and that is a big warning to us that if we don’t wake up and fight, we are going to end up like the people that lost their monies in the banking sector clean-up exercise. Government must honour the existing bonds and pay the bonds that have matured.”

He further stressed that “our main concern right now is that government should honour its existing obligation because people have built their lives around these bonds and government has just destroyed these plans willingly and very insensitively.”

“As it stands now, the government has not paid three outstanding batches of coupons and our main focus is that the government must honour its obligations and pay our members,” Mr Kpebu further stressed.