Security expert Prof Kwesi Aning has described the decision making of the security agencies in reacting to the secessionist group's attack las Friday as 'horribly slow'.

Prof Kwesi Aning said although the police communique on receiving intelligence was "available, the decision making was horribly slow”.

According to him, although the security agencies stated that they received intelligence, members of the Western Togoland separatists successfully conducted a simultaneous attack on the Aveyime and Mepe Police Stations in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region on Friday.

The Director of Academy Affairs and Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), told Samson Lardy Anyenini on Newsfile that the police had about 36 hours to take action since they received the information on September 23, 2020.

Considering the gap between the time of the supposed intelligence got out and the attack by the group, Professor Aning, said there was “a careful planning, masterful execution and a clear signal to the state that this particular group had gone beyond talking”.

“Did the police not take the intelligence seriously or they didn’t understand it?”, he quizzed.

He also described the action of the group as “the most successful first attack by a secessionist group in a sovereign state in the Sahel Sahara and West Africa”.

"It is important to recognise that they are now two flags and possibly more than two or three groups, all using a secessionist language", Prof Aning noted.

The group on August 24 was cited somewhere in the Region evangelising to residents on the need to break away from Ghana.

The leader, in his address to the people, said they have serviced Ghana for too long without any gains and called on President Akufo-Addo to grant them independence for Western Togoland.

“This is the time for our liberation… we want Togoland to be free, we want to tell Nana Akufo-Addo, Bawumia, the Volta Regional Minister… release Western Togoland, release them, release them, this is the time, this is the time…”, the leader stated.

Profession Aning note that similar action took place in Côte d'Ivoire, starting slowly but currently has taken over about 85 per cent of the country.