Ghana’s officials are battling with an agitation from a group within the country’s Volta region previously the British Togoland to split from the country.
Aggrieved residents of this territory claim the processes that led to their merger with the then Gold Coast now Ghana were flawed.
They also claim that the Volta region lacked needed development hence the need to be an independent country on its own.
Ghana’s Volta region previously known as the British Togoland is a historical landscape. In 1922, British Togoland, now Ghana, was formally placed under British rule while French Togoland, now Togo was placed under French rule. There has been no major dispute to this arrangement until now when a group called Homeland Study Group Foundation called for split.
According to Africa Feeds investigations in Ghana, the agitations have persisted for many years but dominated media discussions last year, but authorities in Ghana warned to arrest and prosecute those behind the campaign.
On Monday, the group behind the agitations, the Homeland Study Group held an event, the same day Ghana celebrated 60 years of Independence from the British. At that event, the members of the group insisted on their demand to break way from Ghana.
Three leading members of the group were arrested by the police and sent to court. A Magistrate court however declined jurisdiction over the charge of treason felony proffered against the three.
Local media Starr FM reported that minutes into the case, the judge, Franklin Titus Glover declared that his court does not have jurisdiction over the ‘treason felony’ charge and directed them to head to the appropriate court.
“I am not competent as a district court judge to handle issues of treason,”
The counsel for the suspects, Atsu Agbakpe, told the court that his clients were being detained unlawfully and the charges levelled against them was frivolous.
The convener of the Homeland Study Group, Charles Kormi Kudjordjie told Africa Feeds that the entire process towards merging the British Togoland in 1956 was flawed and illegal saying that the Volta region must stand on its own.
“A good child born by her parents should decide to be on his own, see to his children, do everything so that he doesn’t permanently become a burden on his parents. That’s a good child, but a lazy one decides to be there forever. We are grown and can do our own thing so we want to be on our own. Ghana cannot be our father, our mother, no.”
Kormi further said that the former British Togoland lacked development and needed face-lift.
But a lawmaker from the Volta region, Kofi Humado is kicking against the demands of Kormi. Humado is a member of the opposition political party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which is the dominant party in the region. He has called for dialogue to address the concerns of the group which is mainly about political alienation.
“I am not in favor of succession because I don’t think that is the solution. The issue is just to revisit the former plebiscite and the UN resolutions and then to formalize the situation. When I talk to people they feel that they are alienated. It’s a legitimate reason, that’s why am saying that we just have to revisit the issue of the Union.”
On the streets of the regional capital town, Ho, residents are divided on the matter although majority of them feel the region has been neglected by the government in areas of development.
Joseph Kpesese, 40 said “It won’t be bad to have western Togo land becoming a country on its own. At least we will be independent, we could run our own thing and I think we would become a better place”.
Efo Kosi, 53 also told Africa Feeds “This idea has lingered for a long while, and it has not gotten anywhere. The reason is the people who should foster this cause are not interested in it”
Bodzra Zenator, 37 however said “The call by the group is a misplaced priority and pre-mature and I won’t support that idea, it will not augur well”.
Government officials are hoping to deal with this dispute before it escalates further.
Source: Africafeeds.com/ Isaac Kaledzi
