Papa Hogbedetor, Founder
The ‘Founder’ of the newly-declared ‘Republic of Western Togoland’ Papa Hogbedetor has said Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta forgot to initially include Volta Region roads in the list of roads brought to parliament because the region doesn’t matter to Ghana.
The Octogenarian leader of the separatist movement who declared the ’Western Togo Land’ independent on Sunday said there is no way a mother will forget one of her sons or daughters, asking if it is possible for a mother to forget her children.
He declared the independence of Western Togoland from midnight of November 16, 2019, entering into Sunday, November 17, 2019, “we are now Western Togoland state.” he said.
Giving an inaugural speech to mark the founding of the new state which boasts of its own currency, coat of arms, among other things, and leader cited the recent omission of roads in the Volta Region from the Critical Roads list in the 2020 budget.
” We have all witnessed what happened recently when we (Volta Region) were forgotten by the government in its budget. Can a parent forget about their children? We are not their children, so they have forgotten about us.” he said.
National Democratic Congress’ Members of Parliament Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Joyceline Tetteh and the Volta caucus in parliament questioned the equitable distribution of the national cake over the 16 administrative regions in Ghana as Volta Region was omitted.
“Why is provision not made in the 2020 Budget for critical road projects in the case of only the Volta Region?” Ablakwa asked on his facebook wall after the budget presentation.
Following concerns over the absence of road projects for the region in the 2020 budget, the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo on the Citi Breakfast Show said there was a mistake in the document.
“It was obviously a mistake,” the Minister explained noting that he was also taken aback by the omission.
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta later said the 2020 Budget statement presented to Parliament last Wednesday will be amended.
The amendment corrected the omission of the Volta Region from the list of critical road projects in the budget with the addition of three road projects in the region that were initially left out.
