Volta separatists leader flees

The secessionist, Charles Komi Kudzordzi, aka Papavi Kudzordzi, is on the run as security agents go after him following his so-called declaration on Saturday of independence of an imaginary country called Western Togoland.

Technically on bail after he was arrested earlier, alongside other members of his political grouping, the Homeland Study Group, Papavi made an appearance before a judge before being granted bail.

Last Saturday, many members of his group and others sympathetic to his cause joined him at a spot not far away from the Police Training School in Ho, where he declared a breakaway from the Volta Region, North West and some parts of the Upper East Region.

Soon after declaring a breakaway of ‘Western Togoland’, an act which is considered a treasonable felony and carries a maximum sentence when convicted, he was whisked away in a waiting car.

Not even those who watched him make the daring declaration knew his destination as the car sped off.

Security agents from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the national security apparatus have not yet located his whereabouts.

It is believed that he is hiding in nearby Togo or somewhere within the part of the country he claims is part of his imaginary Western Togoland.

The silence which followed his declaration of independence prompted questions as to whether the act of treasonable felony was going to be responded to at all.

DAILY GUIDE is unable to confirm whether or not some of the secessionist followers have been arrested or not. Under such treasonable circumstances, other members of the seceding group are susceptible to arrests.

Considering the gravity of the criminality of secession, many have asked why members of the Homeland Group were able to get away so easily without the security agents swooping over them, especially during the declaration of independence.

Government Response

A statement from the Information Ministry when it landed eventually left nobody in doubt that the leader of the secession and his gang were under the radar of the national security apparatus.

“The Government of Ghana takes note of a group known as the Homeland Study Foundation, purporting to declare secession from Ghana,” Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said in a statement.

This is the first reaction in writing from the government since the secession bid of the gang reached a crescendo, with the declaration of independence and an announcement of proceeding to seek recognition from the United Nations.

He has also said he is forming a government to push for their demands.

Ghanaians have been asked by government “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.

“Ghana government has given an assurance that it has not ceded any part of its territory to anybody, person or a group of persons,” the statement went on.

As if the independence declaration was not enough, the octogenarian has claimed that the Akosombo Dam belongs to the non-existent ‘Western Togoland’ and was coming for it.

The leader of the secessionists and a few of his followers are no strangers to the cells of the BNI, having been arrested earlier and flown to Accra when their activities attracted the national security apparatus.

Soon after the government announcement asking Ghanaians to disregard the so-called independence declaration, the group has reportedly dared the state from an unknown location.

History

Today’s Volta Region and a part of the Northern Region are not new to territorial controversies. On 9th May 1956, in the twilight of colonial rule in the Gold Coast, a referendum was held on the status of what was then called British Togoland.

The referendum offered the people the choice of remaining a Trust Territory until French Togoland decided which direction it wanted to go, part of the new Ghana or otherwise.

The Togoland Congress campaigned for amalgamation with French Togoland. The referendum results showed that 63.9 per cent favoured being with Ghana and the others, French Togoland.

Octogenarian Charles Komi Kudzordzi is part of those who opposed the amalgamation as he continuously regards the amalgamation with Ghana an illegality, something which is common to his Western Togoland speeches.