'It's ridiculous!' – Letsa on claims he supports Volta militants

Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa has denied supporting the secessionist groups in the Volta Region, one of which recently attempted taking over the region by blocking all entry and exit points and taking some police officers hostage while engaging the others in a gunfight on Friday, 25 September 2020.

“That is ridiculous”, Dr Letsa said of the claim re-echoed by lawmaker Kobina Mensah Woyome.

“Valentina, I don’t want to answer that question because it’s ridiculous".

“We’ve been dealing with these groups since we came into office in 2017. How do I know them? How do I support them? Were they able to provide any evidence?"

“For God’s sake, I’m the Chairman of the regional security council and I’ve to be dealing with this group since 2017”, Dr Letsa said on Class91.3FM's 505 news programme on Friday, 25 September 2020.

The MP for South Tongu had claimed that one of the secessionists told him on the phone that they had the support of Dr Letsa.

Mr Woyome said he had called the Tongu divisional police commander's phone, who had apparently been taken hostage by the militants and one of them answered it and mentioned the regional minister's name as supporting the group.

Speaking in an interview with Class News’ Volta regional correspondent Albert Kuzor, the South Tongu MP said: “What is happening now, looking at the scheme in which it has occurred, the coordinated nature of the whole activity here, Mepe, Atimpoku, I hear Afiefe and several other places at a go, at the same time, and the attacks on the police in this manner, it baffles me a bit.

“I don’t think the security will go to sleep and just relax and not be able to be on top and ahead of anything like this".

“Because, the way it happened, it means they might have sat, planned or deliberately, people who ought to act, didn’t act; people who must be acting and preventing them from happening simply just didn’t want to do and, so, for big names to be coming up like this, whether true or not true, which calls for some investigation anyway, it leaves so much to be desired and too many question marks.”

The South Tongu MP condemned the action of the group and the people behind its actions.

“Does it have some political undertone? Is it because the hearsay is that this is the stronghold of the opposition party and, so, let’s cause some confusion and disaffection so, maybe, people don’t go to the polls? Is that the plan? It’s just unfortunate”, Mr Woyome said.

“Now, people are hurt, but I’m aware that even a woman was shot at and, so, they’ve picked up her belongings including her ID card to chase her to the hospital to go and look out for her and see how she’s faring.

“You can see bloodstains on the ground and all that; that for me is uncalled for, it must not be happening".

“We’re in a country that I know that we have a very good security system in place but unfortunately, the way it’s going, it’s leaving too many question marks on our minds. The government must sit up,” he noted.

Mr Woyome further called for investigations into the matter.

“Should we say that we cannot trust in our security system anymore? That we should be here and somebody comes to attack us and goes free without picking intelligence and preventing it from happening. It leaves too many questions unanswered on our minds and I think that is a serious matter, it’s not like the group is not known…”

“There are better ways to go about this thing, not necessarily the blocking of roads, even if you should block the roads, I don’t think you should go to the extent of attacking police stations to the extent of shooting law enforcement agents, and then hurting them, and as a result, being attacked in response”.

“All these things are needless, we need to get into this matter”, he said.