The rebels have struck again this time ruffling passengers on board a commercial bus.
We are now coming to terms with the reality of rebels in our midst. Calling them rebels, for us, is apt and describes them better than the other references which give them an undeserved modicum of deference.
If their attack on the passenger bus is not proof of their readiness to take on the security apparatus and by extension the state, we do not know what else is.
Reports on the incident when it occurred a couple of days ago left all those who read the story stunned. The daredevil bravado and impunity of the rebels or separatists, as some would rather call them, has reached a crescendo.
Stories about rebel attacks in countries in which the renegades are active used to be distant, far away from us, and therefore belonging only to the foreign news bulletins. Now, we are feeling what it takes when we have enemies among our compatriots.
Our many so-called security experts have a new subject to jump onto the emanating headlines about their analysis providing them with the needed cuttings, the relevance or even aptness of their findings notwithstanding.
A clergyman has called for talks between the rebels and the state. We condemn this proposal as a non-starter. Such a defeatist stance should not be tolerated under any circumstances.
We cannot tolerate any longer the continuing acts of aggression against the state of Ghana.
Under the circumstances, sitting on the same table and discussing the resolution of a so-called separatist agenda with the criminal elements should be the last thing a state like Ghana should do.
We can envisage heightened activities of the rebels in the run-up to the December polls. After all, it fits in the leaked Ofosu-Ampofo tape about how to make the country ungovernable when the elections are due.
The National Security apparatus should not be hindered in its work of securing the territorial integrity of the country.
The Akosombo Dam, the developing railway infrastructure passing through the Volta and Oti regions and other state assets, should be secured at all cost, including increasing troop presence in the region.
If possible, they would destroy state assets in the region in a bid to inflict devastating blow to the state kitty to, as we pointed out earlier, create a semblance of insecurity.
We should begin to be more active in the direction of arrests, prosecution and incarceration to send the appropriate message of no room for rebellious activities in the country.
Where are they who screamed that the Volta Region was under siege? Inundate the region and the adjoining one of Oti with soldiers because the rebels would strike again their initial success having filled them with the necessary impetus to want to proceed further.
Their next line of action would be devastating as they begin to use incendiaries and explosives.
They are serious in working towards their objectives. Talking with them is out of the equation and should not be contemplated.