Foreign Policy and Security Analyst, Adib Saani, has posited that the emergence of separatists groups results from the poor handling of the issue by the national security bodies.
His comments come after the news of the arrest of 21 suspected members of separatists group, Homeland Study Group Foundation in the Volta Region. The suspects, who were arrested at their training camp in a forest at Kpevedui by Ghana Armed Forces, were made up of twenty males and a female.
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In an interview on the Happy Morning Show aired on Happy 98.9FM, he stated: “We didn’t deal with these secessionists expeditiously as should have been done and so they have grown by the day to become a very formidable force. If we had put the right mechanism on the ground, with respect to intelligence gathering, and all that I am sure that we could have stopped this from getting to this stage”.
According to him separatists movements have become a “major source of security threat especially in Africa apart from election related issues”.
In his opinion, the lackadaisical handling of the issue has led to making the Homeland Study Group Foundation very formidable.
“They are formidable because for instance their leader Papavi is still on the run. Secondly they have the support of the community in which they operate. They also have access to Togo from all indications and when it turns so, it raises so many issues because their ammunitions which I am sure they have, have still not been discovered. They are much more sophisticated than we think”, he added.
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It can be recalled that leader of the separatists movement, Mr. Charles Komi Kudzordzi popularly known as Papavi Hogbedetor declared independence on November 17. The Group has done all it can to secede the Volta Region and parts of other regions since 2017 which has resulted in the arrests of some of its leaders on previous occasions.
By: Alberta Dorcas N D Armah