Some 14 persons, including a nursing mother, suspected to be affiliated to secessionists group, Homeland Study Group Foundation have been apprehended at Kpando Aziavi in the Volta Region. 

They were busted on Saturday by a joint team of officers of the 66 Artillery Regiment, National Security and the Bureau of National Investigations.

The suspects who are between the ages of 24 and 60 have been handed over to the Volta Regional Police Command for further investigations.

Briefing the media, the Second in Command of the 66 Artillery Regiment, Major Jalali Din Ibrahim, explained their operation was informed by an intelligence indicating some people were engaged in a meeting to discuss issues pertaining to the secessionist group.

He said that 3 patrol teams were detailed to the Kpando Municipality to verify the information, leading to the arrest of the 14 people, out 18 who were at the meeting.

Major Ibrahim also indicated that some documents retrieved during the operation detail intentions and an orchestrated plan on activities of the group.

"From the materials that we gathered from them, this is a meeting to strategies, to plan on how they are going to carry out their activities in the Volta and even Oti Region", he said.

He added that the military has intesified its operations in both the Volta and Oti regions based on intelligence that members of the Homeland Study Group Foundation are marshaling forces to engage in some activities.

"We are always in town, we don't sleep at all. We want to ensure that we don't give them any breathing space to carry out their intentions in the two regions", he stressed.

Background

The Homeland Study Group Foundation has been campaigning for the succession of parts of the Volta, Oti, Northern, North East and Upper East Regions of Ghana.

The Leader of the group, Charles Kormi Kudzodzi, declared independence for the 'Western Togoland' territory on November 16, 2019. 

He has since been in exile, following an order by the Ho District Court for his arrest and two others for the "unlawful independence declaration".

Meanwhile, the security services continue to foil plans of the group by arresting suspected members who engage in activities to champion the cause of the group. 

In February, 2020, 21 persons alleged to have been recruited to be enlisted into the Western Togoland army were arrested at a secret training camp at Kpevedui in the Ketu North Municipality of the Volta Region.