SECURITY PRESENCE IN VOLTA REGION-PHOTO BY JOYNEWS
SECURITY PRESENCE IN VOLTA REGION-PHOTO BY JOYNEWS

Two pickup trucks seized by separatists in the Volta Region after last Friday’s revolt have been successfully retrieved by the security agencies while a cache of seized weapons remain in their possession, according to Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

Mr Ablakwa also revealed that five police officers and two civilians that got injured during the disturbances are responding to treatment in the Battor Hospital.

“….Glad to hear that the five police personnel and two other civilians who suffered injuries are responding to treatment.

It is good progress to note that the two pickup trucks have been retrieved though I am exceedingly frightened that the cache of weapons taken away from the two police stations in Aveyime and Mepe have still not been located. We can’t afford to have all those weapons in the wrong hands,” he wrote on social media after visiting the place.

Mr Ablakwa also called for thorough investigations into the disturbances in order to get to the bottom of the matter and ensure that further attacks do not occur.

Full statement here of Ablakwa here:

We must resolve that the violent invasion at the dawn of Friday doesn’t recur and that never should the peace and stability of the Volta Region and our dear country be so threatened.

I spent the day assessing fall outs from the bloody incursion in my beloved constituency. My deepest condolences once more to all of us for the lives lost.

I also paid a visit to the Battor Catholic Hospital to personally convey our gratitude to the doctors and nurses for saving the lives of the injured. Glad to hear that the five police personnel and two other civilians who suffered injuries are responding to treatment.

It is good progress to note that the two pickup trucks have been retrieved though I am exceedingly frightened that the cache of weapons taken away from the two police stations in Aveyime and Mepe have still not been located. We can’t afford to have all those weapons in the wrong hands.

I will continue to urge calm and full cooperation with law enforcement even as I humbly appeal to security personnel to exhibit high professionalism in their response.

The demand for independent, credible and impartial investigations into the circumstances of last Friday’s disturbance is hereby renewed. Considering that security chiefs indicate that the perpetrators were largely from outside my constituency; we need to know exactly who they are? How are they being funded and by who? How did they obtain those sophisticated weapons? Who is training them? Where are they being trained? Who are the real masterminds and chief architects? How many of these so-called secession groups now exist out there beyond the five provided by the Regional Minister in a recent revelation made via a media interview? How sure are we that secession is not being used as a ruse by some evil elements to pursue different agendas particularly as the whole of Tongu and Anlo have never been a part of the historical Western Togoland demarcation? Why is our national security apparatus so far failing to be ahead of these groups with credible intelligence?

I shall continue to advocate for a united peaceful Ghana where all citizens have equal opportunities; and I shall continue to remain an ardent believer in that Pan-African dream that one day, all these artificial boundaries will no longer be in the way of true continental African unity.