Papavi
The picture of a frail Papavi supporting his frame with a walking stick when he was arrested for his separatist agenda veneered a major national security issue on our plate.
For those who thought at his age he could not lead a separatist ambition and should be let off the hook were hard-pressed not to revise their stance against the backdrop of subsequent national security breaches by the so-called Homeland Study Forum and even the Alajo bomb makers.
Last week’s dawn attack by the armed wing of the separatists, a non-state military operation was not carried out by ordinary frustrated and desperate people from that part of the country but people with a background in field craft, tactics and those subjects which make for effective military operations. They are ex-servicemen working for moneybags, chiefs and politicians rendering them the necessary support behind a thick curtain. Let us ignore the so-called media condemnation by some chiefs who are only exhibiting their hallmark hypocrisy having earlier frowned on the deployment of soldiers to that part of the country in response to, of course, possible action by the separatists, among other concerns.
The armed wing of the separatist movement sought an important ingredient in all military offensive operations. This they secured and successfully so after advancing to contact the enemy, the security apparatus of the nation for that matter.
Although they were subdued within a few hours after their incursion, the success they chalked up was embarrassing to managers of national security.
Ghanaians who wondered how our intelligence community was caught napping as the so-called rebels eventually tested the state’s preparedness to contain such threats have a point for their anxiety.
There is no doubt in our minds and this is shared by most Ghanaians who do not concur with the separatist nonsense that the state has handled the suspects with kid gloves.
The state has succumbed to the dictates of the NDC who would be quick to point at human rights violation when separatists are arrested even after they declare independence of a part of Ghana.
The laws of the land should be interpreted and applied when there are breaches as in the case of the separatist activities.
When Papavi declared independence of Western Togoland close to a police training school in Ho and fled thereafter, he has since not been arrested leaving us to wonder whether the security apparatus does not find him a valuable asset worthy of being hunted down.
It is intriguing that the separatists are only active when the NDC is out of power. They are quick to resurrect when the pendulum of power swings to the other side. This is a question many Ghanaians continue to pose.
Cynics, some of them so-called security experts who berated the deployment of soldiers to the country’s frontiers, might have to reconsider their options in the face of the reality of the Volta Region being a security zone of immense value in the management of national security.
Those who settled on the establishment of a military unit, the Mortar Regiment now 66 Artillery Regiment in the heart of the Volta Region, foresaw at the time a future laden with separatist activities.
It is time to deploy more troops to the Volta Region as reinforcement to the cannon officers and men of the Artillery Regiment for an indefinite operation of smoking out the rebels.
The separatists are nowhere near sheathing their weapons and so we too should not let down our guard, especially as elections draw near. They are planning ahead of the polls and the earlier the borders are made secure, the better it would be for national security.
Before such a deployment, shouldn’t we know how the ragtag rebels were able to secure the Volta Region with their assortment of blockade materials on the critical entry points to a part of the country?