It looks more like jungle warfare captured on film than a 21st Century occurrence in Ghana, the nation that led the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa to throw off the colonial yoke.
A group of about 50 uninformed youth, with virtually no military training at all, invaded two police stations in the Volta Region and broke into the armoury. They then seized control of the Kpong Hydro Electric Power station and dam. They then blocked all main roads leading to the Volta Region by burning lorry tyres at all entry points, and then declared a secessionist enclave of Western Togoland.
It is treason at its highest point. The bad news for this country is that the whole plot and execution caught state security personnel sleeping on their jobs. It took several hours for the security agencies of the state to realise that a lot was amiss, before they swung into action and arrested 31 people believed to be some of the culprits.
Those rounded up are cooling off at the headquarters of the Bureau of National Investigation, where they are expected to be grilled before being taken to court. The whole invasion is nonsensical, but who said there is any sense in the actions of bandits intent on bringing mayhem to an otherwise peaceful nation?
These bandits are challenging the outcome of the 1957 plebiscite that brought former Western Togoland under British protectorate, and stretching from Sokode, near Ho, all the way to Yendi and Bawku, into Ghana. Why is it that only bandits from some parts of the Volta Region keep making these terribly flawed allegations and threats? The claim by these so-called secessionists has no leg to stand on. Western Togoland was not, and could not, have been the Volta Region as we know it at the moment.
In any case, who said trouble shooters have time for sense and sensibility. Their whole concept of their existence is to draw attention to themselves through crime. That is what we are dealing with, I am afraid.
The other day, I heard Prof. Kwesi Annin of the Kofi Annan Peace-Keeping Centre in Accra calling for dialogue with the bandits. His explanation is that it is not normally possible to defeat bandits on the military front.
If you look at all insurgency groups, they begin slowly. When Boko Haram began their operations with attacks on defenceless institutions of learning on the notion that Western education was inimical to Nigeria as an Islamic state, it made no sense to the discernible.
But they drew their inspiration from the late Osaman Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). The Federal Government’s response was to go after them in an all out military warfare. We also have the experience of the civil conflicts in La Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone to learn from. These were the submissions of the Professor leading the peace-keeping initiative in this country.
I respect the view of the Professor, who has dedicated his whole life to peace-building, but I am of the view that the Ghanaian experience could be handled differently. I know many are those dismissing the notion of a political slant to the whole Western Togoland issue, but there are worrying signs that politics in this country could be part of the problem.
My worry is that though the group has been in existence since the 1990s and sometimes tries to flex its muscles, the secessionist war drums are beaten mainly when the New Patriotic Party is in power. I am not suggesting they the secessionists are funded from politics.
I think we would all benefit from a bit of historical perspective. The area that formed the original Western Togoland stretches into five regions in the current administrative arrangement. They are the Volta Region (without the Anlo State) and stretching from Sokode on the approach to Ho from Accra, all the way to the Oti, Northern, North East and Upper West regions, covering mainly the eastern part of these regions.
These areas and the current state of Togo were carved out by the Germans in 1884 during the partition of Africa in Berlin. When Germany was defeated in the First World War, Britain and France were asked to divide the German colony among themselves. France administered what is now Togo, while the British took over the Western part as a protectorate.
After the Second World War, when Germany was comprehensively defeated, the Treaty of Versailles gave Britain the right to administer Western Togoland. In preparation towards the independence of Ghana in March 1957, the people of Western Togoland were asked, in a plebiscite, to join Ghana or not. The overwhelming 58 percentage Yes vote against 42 for No put the protectorate in the new emerging State of Ghana.
Since that time, there has been absolute peace, save a small amount of refusniks issuing statements here and there. In matters of this nature, rebels look for the least opportunity to raise their concerns.
The evidence on the ground is that throughout the 19-year reign of Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, there was no agitation for secession. Not a single press statement was issued, even in the midst of the worst famine to hit this nation in 1982, 1983 and 1984. It is unfortunate, but with the advent of President John Agyekum Kufuor and his New Patriotic Party regime, when this nation was beginning to unwind from the terrible abduction and assassination of judges and other Wahala, agitations started for a separatist state of Western Togoland.
When Professor John Evans Atta Mills led the National Democratic Congress to the Castle, not a bird stirred on the secessionist front. There were a few statements here and there in the later stages of the Mahama regime though. But it did not take long for the rebels to remind Ghanaians of their worrying presence when Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo won the Presidency. On May 9, 2017, the Homeland Study Foundation unsuccessfully tried to declare what they claimed was the independence of Western Togoland.
Long before then, Charles Kudzordzi, also known as Papavi, the self-acclaimed leader of the Homeland Study Group, now a grand old man, had been a crusader for the creation of Western Togoland as a separate state. He used the local media in Ho to draw attention to his crusade. Apparently, he had gone to the extent of issuing videos on it.
The group has become more vocal in the last four years. In March 2016, the group issued a statement warning the political parties not to enter the Volta Region to campaign. The warning was largely ignored with no effect.
On March17, 2017, three members of the group, including Mr. Kudzordzi, were arrested, but were freed later. On March 6, 2017, eight members of the group were arrested, together with its leader, at their hideout while planning to announce the independence of Western Togoland on May 9. They were consequently released. After a brief court appearance, the members so arrested, were released.
On September 3, 2020, a signboard with the inscription ‘Welcome to Western Togoland’ and ‘You are leaving Western Togoland’ was spotted at Akorley in the Yilo Krobo District of the Eastern Region. Armed police officers from the Somanya Police Command pulled it down.
Barely two weeks later, on September 23, 2020, a group, this time christened the Togolese Restoration Front, carried out the most brazen attack on the Ghanaian mainland. Its members blocked some roads leading to the Volta Region, installed billboards with the inscription ‘Welcome to the Western Togoland,’ and blocked leading roads to the region by burning lorry tyres on them.
Some hoodlums attempted to take over the Kpong Hydro-Electric generating plant and dam. They were reported to have invaded the police stations at Mepe, Aveyime and Bator. They broke into the Police Armoury and took away a total of ten guns, including the dreaded AK 47. Video clips of the rebels in seized police vehicles are still doing rounds in the region.
At the moment, 31 people suspected to be members of the secessionist group, who carried the attack, have been arrested and cooling off at the Bureau of National Investigation headquarters in Accra. They are being interrogated and processed for court today, I believe.
At the weekend, the National House of Chiefs issued a statement in Kumasi, condemning the attack and calling on the state security agencies to do everything possible to nip the secessionist threat in the bud. The House of Chiefs statement was read by Togbe Afede XIV, President of the House and Agbogbomefia of the Asogli Traditional Council.
Yesterday, the Gbi Traditional Council also issued a statement at Hohoe, urging action to retrieve all missing guns and to bring the secessionist threat to an end.
As stated earlier, security expert Prof. Kwesi Anning is calling for dialogue with the rebels. He says it is very difficult to defeat rebels on the battle front. He may have a point, but how do you negotiate with people who have decided not to reason?
Every child in the basic school in Ghana knows that it is only a portion of the Volta Region that was part of the Western Togoland. How does anybody negotiate the fate of all that piece of land, stretching from Sokode near Ho all the way to Bawku in the Upper East Region, with a few bandits living in Ho and its surrounding areas?
I am not a security expert, but I am of the view that the traditional authority in the Volta Region, and opinion leaders in the area, have lead roles in ending this conflict. The statement from both the National House of Chiefs and the Gbi Traditional Council are welcome. But it does not address the whole problem. I suggest a carrot and stick approach, under which the state deals severely with those found guilty of the secessionist plot, while chiefs and opinion leaders try to talk the youth in the Volta Region especially, out of this nonsense. The Volta Region can never exist on its own. It is part and parcel of the Republic of Ghana.
I shall return!
Ebo Quansah in Accra
The post What is there to negotiate with these bandits? appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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