Member of Parliament for South Dayi in the Volta Region, Hon. Rockson-Nelson E.K. Dafeamekpor has condemned in no uncertain terms, the arrest of an 80-year-old man and seven others of the Volta Separatist movement.
He said the arrest was “needless”.
The separatist movement also known as the Homeland Study Group Foundation [HSGF] claims the Volta Region [Western Togoland] was an independent state before being made to join Ghana in a plebiscite.
They are therefore campaigning for the creation of an independent state called Western Togoland.
Arrests . . . Granted Bail
An Accra High Court on Wednesday remanded into police custody seven members of the Foundation as part of a wave of arrests.
One other accused person, Charles Kormi Kudjordji, 85, said to be the leader of the group, had been picked up earlier on Sunday.
They were reportedly picked up by National Security operatives during one of their usual meetings on Sunday in the Volta Region for planning to declare the region an independent state in Ho.
A team of police and the military has also picked up 81 persons believed to be part of the campaign to declare the Volta Region independent from Ghana.
17 of the arrested individuals, were picked up in the house of the leader of the group (Charles Kudzordi) who lives close to the 66 artillery regiment barracks.
54 of the people were also arrested aboard a bus entering Ho and the remaining 10 arrested at other entry points in and around the Ho municipality.
Charles Kudjordji was granted bail to the tune of GH¢250,000 with two sureties. He was conveyed in a helicopter to face multiple charges.
All of the persons picked up by the police were on Wednesday slapped with the charges of treason felony, abetment of unlawful training, unlawful assembly and offensive conduct.
But speaking in an interview on Neat FM's "Ghana Montie" show, the South Dayi MP was emphatic that “there is nothing treasonable with their Homeland Study Group Foundation [HSGF] activities.”
Listen to interview…
Foiled Plan
The secessionists had converged Wednesday morning at the residence of the Group’s leader who was arrested on Sunday and flown to Accra.
The assembled members of the cell were preparing to hold a press conference before the security team swooped in.
Senior State Attorney Winifred Sarpong told the three-member panel of High Court Justices that the seriousness of the crimes allegedly committed by the individuals made a grant of remand necessary.
In 2017, leaders of the group were arrested and warned not to engage in activities against the state.
Campaign to secede
Multiple ethnicities live in the Volta Region which has a history of rule by three colonial European powers.
Britain seized much of what is today Ghana, and Germany grabbed neighbouring Togo.
After Germany's defeat in World War One, the land was split between British Togoland and French Togoland.
When Britain left its empire in Africa, British Togoland became part of eastern Ghana in 1956.
But separatists say the area has its own unique history and culture, and want a country of their own.
Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Washman007
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