Four more people have reportedly been picked up for their alleged participation in the violence that occurred in the Volta Region recently linked to the so-called secessionist activities.
It has brought to about 70 the number of people rounded up by the security agencies in connection with the agenda to push for a so-called Western Togoland in the Volta Region.
Less than a week after rioting, attacking police stations and blocking vehicular movements on busy highways close to Juapong on the Accra-Ho highway as well as the Accra-Aflao highway, thereby triggering heightened security in the Volta Region, they burnt down two State Transport Corporation (STC) mini buses in Ho last Tuesday dawn, as part of their so-called effort to ‘secede’ from Ghana.
The government has said the issue is purely criminal and must be tackled devoid of the usual politics even though the opposition NDC is creating the impression that the people in their stronghold of the Volta Region are being harassed by the government.
Fresh Swoop
The four person arrested yesterday are said to be part of the group that launched the attack on the police station on September 25.
They were arrested at Ajasikan through a joint operation team of the Ghana Navy and the police.
One of the key suspects arrested, Kpexo Besah, a 28-year-old farmer, reportedly led the security team to about 2km from the village to his farm where they retrieved three single barrel guns and one AK47 rifle with 14 rounds of ammunition.
Court Confession
Some of the ‘rebels’ arrested in connection with the violence have been making astonishing claims that they got involved in the melee because of the Electoral Commission (EC) and the fact that there is ongoing discrimination against the Ewe ethnic grouping.
The purported reason for their action appears similar to that of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) whose flagbearer former President John Dramani Mahama and running mate former Education Minister Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, both of whom suspended their campaigns recently, when they claimed without any proof that the EC was deliberately removing names of NDC members from the voters’ register ahead of the December general election.
Bigger Target
The Volta Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, has revealed that the recent violent attacks by those purporting to push a so-called Western Togoland agenda were ‘diversionary’ tactics deployed in order to hit their intended bigger targets.
In an interview on a radio station (Kuul FM) in Ho on Thursday, the minister revealed that but for the vigilance of the security agencies, there would have been more devastating attacks by the group whose activities, the government has declared, should be treated as criminal and not political.
So far, three groups, namely the Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF), the Western Togoland Restoration Front (WTRF) and the Western Togoland Assembly (WTA), are claiming to have adopted different strategies but are purporting to fight for a common goal and the security agencies have accused them of causing the carnage in the Volta Region.
Court Revelation
When the suspects appeared at the Circuit Court 3 in Accra last Friday presided over by Susan Eduful, they created the impression that it was because the EC ‘removed’ their names from the register and that there was discrimination against Ewes and that was why they got involved in the rioting.
They claimed they were demonstrating for the world to know that they were being ‘marginalized’ in the Volta Region by the government, a similar claim NDC members have been ‘pushing’ against the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government as the general election draws closer.
A suspect even said in court that it was a ‘NEC’ decision to engage in rioting to show the world they are being marginalized but could not say if the NEC was the same as the National Executive Council (NEC) of the NDC.
From Fred Duodu, Ho