It has emerged that the recent violent attacks of separatists involving roadblocks in the North and South Tongu areas and burning of two buses in the Ho Municipality were diversionary from intended bigger targets.
The Volta Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa in an interview on a Ho based radio station revealed that but for the vigilance of the security agencies, there would have been more devastating attacks by the separatists this past week.
Although he refused to give more details on security grounds, the Minister said intelligence pointed to a number of key installations in the region as the actual targets.
However, realising the difficulty in proceeding with their plan, the separatists out of frustration and diversionary tactics took to blocking the main entry points to the Volta region last Week Friday, September 25, 2020 and attacking the STC bus terminal last Monday, September 28, 2020.
The recent attacks of separatists in the Volta region have led to the public questioning the alertness and preparedness of the security agencies in the country. The opposition NDC have through many of their communicators and sympathisers accused the government of orchestrating the attacks to prepare grounds to invade the Volta Region, its stronghold ahead of the elections in December.
However, speaking to the issue, Dr. Letsa noted that his position as Regional Minister and Chairman of the Regional Security Council (REGSEC) makes him privy to a lot of information and operations that cannot be made public for his own safety, safety of the same people and the country as whole. Hence such politically influenced claims are laughable and a clear indication of ignorance or dishonesty on the part of the NDC members.
He said “Where I seat, I am privy to a lot of information. The kind of things that come to me, you can never know. But for their vigilance what will have happened would have been terrible.”
In the case of the road blocks last Friday, he explained that “Road blocks were an act of frustration because they could not hit their targets. Every situation that happens must be analysed. We could have cleared the road in 10 minutes, but it was diversionary.”
Per the analysis “We did not want the public to be caught in the cross fire. We needed to protect human lives and reduce casualties to the barest minimum,” so it was better to keep the commuters in traffic while the operatives dealt with the critical issues before clearing the road.
The STC attack was also as a result of failed attempts to attack other places. It is for this reason the Municipal Chief Executive, Prosper Pi-Bansah had said security was heightened at the critical places intelligence picked for the attacks. “So you see that the STC was an afterthought. It was out of frustration.”
The Minister stressed that the security has so far performed creditable adding that “the situation is not out of control. The Security is in charge.”
He noted that “I won’t fault the public who are ignorant of the security issues and operations for their comments against the security operations, but the end will justify the means.”
“This is an operation that is in progress. I cannot disclose more to the public, but they should know that it could have been worse,” he reiterated.
He therefore appealed to the public to have faith in the government and the security agencies and work closely with them by providing prompt and relevant information to aid in the arresting the criminals destroying the Volta Region and Ghana’s image.
From Fred Duodu, Ho (k.duodu@yahoo.com)