Reverend Seth Mawutor, Chairman, Volta Regional Peace Council
Reverend Seth Mawutor, Chairman, Volta Regional Peace Council, says plans are underway to dialogue with key stakeholders to deal with secessionist activities in the Volta and Oti Regions.
He said the planned dialogue would involve Municipal and District Assemblies, traditional leaders, youth groups, and organised groups, among others.
He said the youth would be equipped on varied issues, including the need to reject messages intended to fuel the secession agenda and to adopt acceptable means to voice their grievances, beginning this month.
Rev Mawutor, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency in an interview, said the engagement had become necessary to quell agitations and prevent the secessionist groups from taking root, recruiting and spreading their agenda.
He warned that if the secessionist activities were underestimated and left unresolved, it could affect both regions, in particular and at large, the country’s security, noting, “we’re not taking the threat of the secessionists for granted.”
Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF), a secessionist group, led by Kormi Kudzordzi known as Papavi Hogbedetor, on Saturday, November 16, 2019, declared Volta Region an independent “Western Togoland state.”
On Sep 25 last year, Western Togoland Restoration Front (WTRF), an offshoot of HSGF, at separate locations attacked a police station, captured some police officers severely wounding them, caused disturbances on the region’s roads and later set state transports ablaze all in their attempt to “assert sovereignty on the Volta Region.”
Though some members of these secessionist groups were arrested and facing prosecution, Rev Mawutor said the Council would not take chances with the prevailing peace in the region and the country.
He expressed the need to deploy dialogue with all parties and called on everyone to help prevent situations currently being witnessed in neighbouring countries.