Secessionist threat engages Parliament’s attention on resumption day

The leadership of Parliament, when the House resumed from recess, on Tuesday, discussed the Western Togoland secessionist threats, and called on the national security apparatus to nip the threat in the bud.

Both Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu and Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, expressed strong reservations, in their opening remarks, on the secession threats.

This was after Speaker Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye welcomed the legislators back from a recess, with the reminder to leave a good mark in the remnant of the five-week meeting before the House breaks for campaigning before Ghana’s next December 7 general election.

Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, referring to the incident, which recently happened in the Volta Region, said: “The unfortunate incident in the Volta Region, I don’t want to believe that any of us will buy into that agenda.

He reminded the legislators and the public on the collective resolve undertaken in the national Referendum in 1992, and urged that people with ulterior motives not to take the nation to the brinks.

The Majority Leader recalled a statement attributed to a former Ghanaian leader that Ghanaians were one people, one nation with a common destiny.

He called on “men and women of goodwill” rather than engaging in scare-mongering to urge the Electoral Commission, the body responsible for the conduct of the elections, to do what was appropriate, expressing confidence that the body would live to its functions of making the elections free and fair as previously.

Monoity Leader Haruna Iddrisu described the secessionist threat as “ugly’ threat and expressed strong conviction of the Commander in Chief of the Ghana Army Forces, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and his main contender at the elections, Former President John Dramani Mahama, in dealing with threats on the sovereignty on the nation of Ghana.

“We cannot afford to have a disunited Ghana,” Mr Iddrisu declared.

Both leaders urged members to make themselves available to the work of the House and to ensure balance between work in the House and in the constituencies.