Ghana remains a sovereign state which has not ceded any part of its territory to any person or group of persons, the government said in a statement issued in Accra yesterday.
According to the statement signed by the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the government said it had taken note of the activities of a group known as the Homeland Study Foundation, purporting to declare secession from Ghana.
“While admonishing the public to disregard the claims by the group, the general public is hereby informed that state security agencies are taking the necessary measures to ensure that persons involved with the illegal act, are dealt with in accordance with the law”, it stated.
The statement concluded that “Ghana’s security agencies remain in firm charge of Ghana’s territory and encourage all persons to continue with their daily activities normally.”
The Homeland Study Group Foundation, Saturday, November 16, declared Political Autonomy (Independence) for the people of the Volta and Oti Regions.
The group’s leader, 85-year-old, Charles K. Kudzordzi, with the support of a Ho-based Togolese Pastor, Godsfriend Edem Peter, head of the Believers Chapel International proclaimed the two regions as Western Togoland,
The independence for Western Togoland was made at a public gathering in the former premises of the Unity Rural Bank, close to the Ho Police Training School amid cheers from other members of the group.
Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, the Volta Region in reaction, described the declaration of Independence for the two regions by the group as vain and criminal.
He told the ‘Ghanaian Times in Ho Sunday that, “we are on top of the issue and we will pick them up and deal swiftly and ruthlessly with them”.
The Volta Regional Minister had assured that as the Chair of the Regional Security Council (REGSEC), he had already convened an emergency meeting over the matter and would meet again over it again later to take the appropriate action over the “so-called declaration of Independence by the group”.
He explained that the presence of patrol teams of the security agencies on the streets of the regional capital was meant to assure the public of their safety and not to intimidate anyone.
The regional minister said that the patrols would continue for a while and entreated residents to bear with the team.
According to him, the Homeland Study Group Foundation posed no threat to the state and urged all and sundry to go about their daily activities.
The group had been demanding the secession of the Volta Region and parts of the Northern, North East and Upper East regions to become the Western Togoland state as soon as possible.
It argues that by the dictates of the 1956 plebiscite, the terms were no longer binding on the parties and that even certain portions of present Ghana were not considered during the referendum.
The leader and other members of the separatist group were arrested in May this year and arraigned but were released on bail.
-Kojo Oppong Nkrumah
