Engaging secessionists won’t mean you plan to grant their request – Col (rtd) Aboagye tells govt

Renowned security and conflict resolution expert, Col Festus Aboagye (rtd), has said persons shooting down suggestions for a dialogue between the government and members of a group calling for independence and self-governance of a small area in the Volta Region are missing the point.

Mr Aboagye said in an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb on Tuesday, September 29, 2020, that the national security threat posed by members of the Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF) is real, hence the need to remove the threat at all cost.

“One of the purposes of mediation negotiation is communication. We [government of Ghana] need to talk to them and find out exactly what they are looking for – beyond what they have stated on their website and so on.

“And we don’t need to talk to them directly. We can get a third party…an individual, a prominent person, who has influence and connection in Togo and Ghana to talk to them,” he stated.

Members of the HSGF are calling for the secession of parts of the Volta and Oti regions, an area they say forms part of the Western Togoland that was forced to join Ghana during a plebiscite in 1956.

The group on the dawn of Friday, September 25, 2020, took over Juapong, a town in North Tongu District of the Volta Region. They blocked roads and seized a police commander.

The group had mounted huge signposts with the inscription ‘Welcome to Western Togoland’ at different entry points as motorists fond it difficult to leave the town.

Calm has been restored in the area after national security operatives stormed the hotspots.

Commenting on fears that the activities of the secessionists may escalate, Col Aboagye (rtd) said Ghana must adopt a well-communicated strategy that removes the security threat posed by the agitators

“You can use diplomacy, you can use economics, you can use the military and you can use any number of things. Which of these tools has Ghana got?

“If we found that we cannot defeat them on the battlefield, then we talk to them. Talking to them doesn’t mean you are going to grant their request,” he stressed.