Secessionist attacks: It could have been worse – Danquah Institute boss

Richard Ahiagbah, the Executive Director at Danquah Institute has defended the reaction of the government and the security agencies to the attacks by members of the Western Togoland group in the Volta Region.

Ahiagbah insists that but for the proactivity of the intelligence agencies, the attacks could have been worse.

He downplayed notions that there was a security intelligence failure with regards to the attacks and that the group appears to be a step ahead of the government.

He, then, observed that the people making such assertions are rather bastardizing security agencies instead of commending them for foiling planned attacks on the Ho Central Market and other institutions in the Volta Region.

“The question you want to ask is ‘what else could have happened that did not happen?’ That is when you are looking at it objectively.

“But for the intelligence and the work that was done, we could have seen something bigger than what we saw,” Ahiagbah said on Newsfile on Saturday.

He added, “I found the discussion rather counterproductive when instead of dealing with the issue, some have chosen to bastardise the security.”

But the Member of Parliament representing the North Tongu Constituency disagreed with the leader of the Pro-NPP Think Tank.

Giving a timeline of how the secessionist carried out the attacks, the MP noted that the reaction of the security agencies leaves much to be desired.

“It is unpardonable to have these things happen, to the extent that even when you have increased security visibility – a lot of soldiers have been deployed in the region – these people are still staging successful attacks. That must worry us,” he said.