Volta Regional Minister Dr Archibald Yao Letsa has revealed that three separatist groups seeking secession from the country have so far been formed in the region.
In an interview on JoyNews’ PM Express on Friday, Dr Letsa said, the groups – Western Togoland separatist, the Homeland Study Group and the Western Togoland Restoration Front (WTRF) – although they are offspring of the same group with the same course, they exhibit some slight differences.
According to him, the WTRF group which is responsible for the attack at the Aveyime and Mepe Police Stations in the North Tongu District in the wee hours of Friday is more militarised than the others.
He added the three separatist groups have been under the surveillance of the Volta Regional Security Council since their inception in 2017.
“We’ve been monitoring them for over two years and we intend to deal with them,” he said.
In the wee hours of Friday, a group of armed men believed to be members of a secession group forcibly took over the Aveyime and Mepe police stations simultaneously, overpowered the police officers, broke into the armoury, and made away with all the weapons.
Commenting on this, the Volta Region Minister said the nation’s security forces had pre-empted the Friday morning attack by securing vital installations in the region from the group.
He said, they suspected that the roadblocks at the Mepe-Sege road and the Accra-Ho road at Juapong were designed as a distraction to draw the security forces away from those locations.
“We were aware that there were going to be some activities last night and we had to protect some vital installation to make sure that the economy of the region is not adversely affected.
“So we actually were able to prevent some more serious attacks that were planned by this group,” he noted.
Currently, the secessionists have been quelled and rounded up after a shootout with the military.
They were subsequently transported to the capital, Accra for questioning and investigation by the Bureau of National Intelligence (BNI).
