Secessionistic ‘Western Togoland’ billboards pop up in Eastern Region

On September 3, 2020, 7:09 PM

Police has confiscated signposts and billboards erected in the Eastern Region encouraging secessionism.

The boards bore the inscriptions ‘Welcome to Western Togoland’ and ‘You are leaving Western Togoland’.

The signposts were found erected in the early hours of Thursday, September 3, 2020, at Akorley in the Yilo Krobo District of the region.

The boards had a deep-blue background, white inscriptions, and a Western Togoland flag at the top right corner.

The Deputy Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Eastern Regional Police Command, Sergeant Francis Gomado, confirmed the development to Citi FM, in an interview monitored by theghanareport.com.

He said the posts were also found in Somanya and other parts of the region but the police were yet to identify the people who mounted the posts.

“We are following a lead but for now we have not arrested anybody,” he said.

He explained that investigations have commenced with traditional authorities helping to trace the people who erected the signage.

He said it was the first time police in the region are experiencing incidents in relation to Western Togoland seperatists.

In the past, the Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF), a separatist group had announced a breakaway of parts of the Volta Region, Oti Region, Northern Region and Upper East as an independent state called Western Togoland.

The secessionists, led by Mr Charles Komi Kudzordzi alias Papavi Hogbedetor, a man in his 80’s, made a declaration on Saturday, November 16, 2019, declaring the creation of Western Togoland.

The group has been pursuing a break-away from Ghana for a long time but they surfaced more publicly in 2017, releasing designs for flag and currency.

Police in the Volta region moved in to arrest some members of the separatist group days after the declaration was made.

This was after Government issued a statement assuring that Ghana has not ceded any part of its territory to any person or group of persons.

About eleven 11 persons were arrested.

That was not the first-time member of the defiant group had been arrested.

The group was also accused of training some young people to be recruited into an army with weapons procured for their operations.

Soldiers rounded up 21 people, twenty males and female accused persons, at the secret training ground at Kpevedui in the Volta Region in February 2020.

They were arraigned at an Accra Circuit Court.

The Prosecutor, Chief Inspector Simon Apiosornu, told the court that on February 17, 2020, officers of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), tracked the group to Dzodze in the Volta Region, following several days of intelligence gathering on the activities of the prohibited Western Togoland Secessionist Group.

The leader of the group, has, however, eluded police capture occasionally releasing statements and videos to communicate his messages.

Story By David Apinga