Four executive members of the Western Togoland Restoration Front (WTRF) have been sentenced to a total jail term of 17 years imprisonment by an Accra High Court.

This was after the court presided over by Justice Mary Maame Ekueh Nyanzuh found them guilty on the various charges preferred against them.

The accused persons, including police and military officers, were jailed after they had gone through full trial on the charges of being members of a prohibited organization, summoning meetings of prohibited organisation, attending meeting of prohibited organization, and making contributions for the benefit of prohibited organization.

Michael Koku Kwabla Amertornu Gohey, aka Togbe Yesu Edudzi, a founder of the WTRF, was sentenced to five years imprisonment.

The court also imposed a fine of GHC12,000 on him.

Gohey in default, would serve one year imprisonment.

Three other accused persons, Nene Kwaku Agblorm II, aka Joshua Tawiah Agblorm, WOI Emmanuel Afedo, a Military Officer and Lance Corporal Abednego Dzreke Mawena, a Police officer, were sentenced to four years imprisonment each.

The three convicts were also sentenced to a fine of GHC4,800 each in default.

They would serve three months’ jail terms each.

Mr Andy Vortia, who represented the three convicts in his plea for mitigation, urged the court to consider the number of years his clients had spent in custody.

According to Mr Vortia, his clients had virtually spent three years, six months imprisonment each, hence the court should consider imposing a minimum fine on them.

In the case of Lance Corporal Mawena, defence counsel said he had been suffering stroke for some time and had been in incarceration for the past four years.

The defence counsel, therefore, prayed the court to impose a fine on him so he could unite with his family.

The prosecution led by Mr Joshua Sackey, Senior State Attorney, prayed the court to hand down deterrent sentence on the convicts to serve as a lesson for likeminded persons.

Mr Sackey told the court the two security officers among the convicts who had taken oaths to protect the sovereignty and integrity of the State woefully failed to do so.

According to Mr Sackey, their activities amounted to a betrayal, adding their time spent in custody did not mean they had been sentenced.

The court in handing down the sentences held that prosecution led cogent evidence depicting the activities of the WTRF, with an agenda to break away.

The facts are that officers of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), based on intelligence, embarked on an exercise to identify, and arrest members of the Western Togoland Restoration Front, who on 25th September, 2020, blocked the road at Juapong and Sogakope and set fire to two STC vehicles.

On the same day, some members of the group also attacked the Aveyime and Mepe Police Stations, freed the inmates in the cells, locked up the policemen on duty in the cells, took arms and ammunitions from the armory of the police stations and bolted.

The Western Togoland Restoration Front is a splinter organisation from the Homeland Study Group Foundation, whose main objective is to secede from the Republic of Ghana and form a new sovereign State.

The supposed new State is to cover the entire Oti and Volta regions and parts of the Eastern and Northern regions of the Republic of Ghana.

Investigations showed that the Western Togoland Restoration Front was formed after Charles Kwami Kudzordzi @Papavi Hogbedetor, who is the founder and leader of the Homeland Study Group Foundation, a prohibited organisation, went into hiding after his arrest and release.

The first accused person, Michael Koku Kwabla Amertonu @Togbe Yesu Edudzie, who was deputy to Papavi Hogbedetor, founded the Western Togoland Restoration Front to continue from where Papavi Hogbedetor left.

The other accused persons are members of the National Executive Council of the Western Togoland Restoration Front.

The first accused person, as the leader of the group, summoned meetings of the National Executive Council of the Western Togoland Restoration Front at which discussions were made as to how to secede from the Republic of Ghana.

At one of the National Executive Council Meetings, a proposed list of the cabinet of the envisaged State was discussed.

The first accused person was to become the Prime Minister of the envisaged state.

The fifth accused person, WO1 Emmanuel Hayford Afedo, was put in charge of educating and recruiting new members of the Western Togoland Restoration Front from the Northern parts of the Republic of Ghana.

At other meetings, the accused persons held discussions on how the civil service staff of the envisaged State was to be paid.

The Western Togoland Restoration Front, at its National Executive Council meeting on September 24, 2020, decided to block the roads at Sogakofe, Sege, Kpong and Juapong.

They also planned to attack the Aveyime and Mepe Police Stations.

On 25 September, 2021, at dawn, the roads were blocked with trips of sand and burning tyres.

The members of the Western Togoland Restoration Front also attacked the Aveyime and Mepe Police Stations, held the officers and their families hostage, freed inmates from the cells, broke into the armory of these two police stations and made away with arms and ammunitions belonging to the Ghana Police Service.

Investigations led to the arrest of the accused persons who admitted being members of Western Togoland Restoration Front.

They also admitted playing active roles in its organisation and activities such as the attendance of meetings.

In addition, the first accused person, Michael Koku Kwabla Amertonu @Togbe Yesu Edudzie, and third accused person, Charles Elo (now deceased), also admitted making financial contributions towards the operations of the organisation.

In addition, the third accused person (Elo) was found to have taken part in the blocking of the road and the attack on the Aveyime Police Station on September 25, 2020,