Western Togoland attacks: Volta Regional Minister must resign – Lawyer

Private legal practitioner Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo is demanding the immediate resignation of Volta Regional Minister, Archibald Yao Letsa over his failure to forestall the recent revolt by the Western Togoland separatist group.

He contends that the minister exhibited grave failure by not preventing the attacks.

Speaking on Citi FM, Nii Kpakpo indicated that, the Regional Minister and the Volta Region security apparatus should be sanctioned for not pre-empting the attacks.

“At the minimum, the Volta Regional Minister should have gone because he failed.

“It is on his watch that this activity happened. It is a major security failure,” he said.

He continued: “Anyone connected with the security architecture in the Volta Region has questions to answer because, at the minimum, intelligence should have picked up the fact that something like this was going to happen.”

The lawyer joined a list of public officials who have so far called for the use of force in dealing with the situation.

He observed that the latest attacks should serve as a wake-up call for the government on how it should handle the separatists.

“On hindsight, we are realising that these people are not playing… if we are handling them with kids gloves, we need to tighten them.”

The Volta Region minister has been heavily criticized, with some people alleging that he is in collusion with the separatists.

The Minister has meanwhile debunked those claims, vowing to sue anyone who links him with the group.

"I have worked and lived in the Volta Region for almost 31 years and lots of people know me. I have had to deal with this secessionist group since 2017 so how come they claim they know me or I am their financier? I am ready to take action against anyone who comes out openly to accuse me of that. Those people who came on TV and mentioned my name I will like to know them so they meet me in court because I have built a reputation and won't allow it to be ruined by criminals," he said.