'It was like a Hollywood movie' - Okudzeto narrates how secessionists captured the police

Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has described as 'mind-blowing' the manner in which the secessionists outsmarted and ambushed the police.

According to the North Tongu MP, their 'tactical' and skillful way of engaging the Ghana Police Service in a gun battle proves they have truly undergone intenstive training coupled with eperience.

“What happened, you will think is a chapter from a Hollywood movie. To have two police stations invaded in what appears to be a very well-coordinated attack is mind-blowing,” he stated on JoyNews’ NewsFile.

Narating how the police were ambushed, Mr Ablakwa said some men approached the police at about 4:40 am on September 25 under the pretence of seeking assistance.

“They just distracted the police personnel on duty and swamped in in their numbers and took them hostage. They went in holding one of their own handcuffed and as the policeman tried to take their statement, the others swapped in and took over.They were many, they tell us that, there were over 70 who attacked the police station and they knew exactly what to do and where to go.They went straight for the armouries, managed to open them and they showed some level of sophistication that is mindblowing.They took out all the weapons they could find," he said.

"So at the Aveyime Police station, we have been told by the Police Commander that 19 weapons were taken, so 15 AK47 and 4 pump action guns.They did a similar operation at the Mepe Police Station where they had two weapons in the armoury.They then managed to free the inmates in the cells and replaced them with the police after stripping them naked,” Ablakwa added.

He further remarked that the group also stormed the local district assembly to ransack their offices.

“At the district assembly, they took out all the computers and documents and managed to find the key to the pickup that the DCE uses. Remember that they had also managed to take the police pickup and that pickup was leading a reinforcement team from the divisional command.

“What the Divisional Police Command told me last night was that, he is still wondering how they overpowered them by the superior firepower they exhibited because they engaged them in a gun battle but clearly they had more sophisticated weapons and their level of precision was totally mindblowing.

“So they disarmed the reinforcement team, took their weapons including the Police Commander’s pistil. Now, while all of this was going on, it’s important to stress that they were in no hurry to leave the place after overpowering the police,” he added.



Recounting how the roadblocks and the group’s flags were mounted at various places within the Constituency, the MP said the group replaced the police and Ghana flags with theirs, before moving to hoist more flags across the region.

“They managed to parade the streets with these vehicles in jubilant mood and then stopped the river sand winning vehicles, led them to the boundary between Sege and Aveyime and ordered them to offload the sand, blocked the streets and then erected their flags.

“They had also replaced the police flags with their Western Togoland flags and then continued to jubilate.

“I have spoken to the Interior Minister and he assured that the reinforcement team was being sent and he was aware of the difficulties the team from Sogakope had encountered.

“But I still think the response was rather slow and that we could have acted faster to round them up.

“As it is now, they managed to really finish their operation and leave the scene,” he said.