You can’t fragment this country – Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu to Western Togolanders
The Majority leader of Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has called on members of Parliament (MPs) to unite against the ulterior motives of any group of person who want to threaten the stability of the country.
This follows recent separatist activities in the Volta Region.
The Majority Leader made the call on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, 6 October 2020.
He reminded members of the house of the need to protect the country’s stability.
The Suame MP said: “I don’t believe that any of us here will buy into an agenda”, adding: “This country has had a referendum in 1992 and resolved, as a nation, that we’ll live together in unity and we resolve to also protect the stability of this country”.
“The clarion call should go to all of us; it should go to all of us herein assembled as Members of Parliament that that collective resolve, which happened when we contracted the referendum that approved the 1992 Constitution, still holds and we should not allow any individuals with ulterior motives to take this nation to the brink.”
He further reiterated calls for the country to ensure that the peace, unity and stability it enjoys, continues to prevail.
“We must live in unity, we must live in stability, we must live as a collective. Let nobody attempt to fragment this country. It’s not going to happen and it won’t happen,” the Majority leader stated.
For his part, Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu, pledged his side’s support to the government in its effort to contain any threat against Ghana’s stability.
“There’s an ugly threat to the stability, sovereignty and territory of Ghana in the Volta Region. The President, as Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, should be assured that he has the full support of the house to deal decisively, ruthlessly with the threat to the sovereignty of our country.”
The Tamale South MP further reminded members of the house to uphold the sovereignty of the 1992 Constitution.
“He should endeavour to uphold the provisions of the Constitution, particularly Article 4, which guarantees the sovereignty of a united Ghana – a republic. We will support the President fully as Commander-in-Chief and the President of Ghana, to contain the imminent threat to the peace, stability of Ghana and particularly, the people of the Volta Region. The threat there can be worrying and can undermine the conduct of free, fair elections throughout Ghana and, particularly, in that region.
“We will support every effort of the government to contain that ugly threat,” Mr Iddrisu noted.
Meanwhile, the leader of secessionist group Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF), Mr Charles Kormi Kudzordzi, popularly known as Papavi, has released a video message denying any involvement whatsoever of the group in the recent violence staged by people purporting to be Western Togolanders.
In their first attack on Friday, 25 September 2020, the secessionists seized two police stations, took the officers hostage and stole weapons from the armouries after blocking entry and exit points in the Volta Region.
Subsequently, they torched two buses at the Ho STC yard on Tuesday, 29 September 2020.
Papavi, however, said HSGF had no hand in both incidents.
“The Homeland Study Group Foundation is a peaceful group”, Mr Kudzordzi, who is in his 80s said, stressing in his Ho address that it is “a peace-loving group, a peace-generating group, a peace-making group”.
According to him, he has been cooperating with Ghana’s security authorities following his arrests in the past together with some of his followers.
“I have made myself available to the police and to the security agencies on several occasions.
“Anytime they wanted me, I went there, we had a discussion and then I came home.”
He also noted that his peaceful overtures to the government of Ghana have drawn blanks.
“I have, on two occasions, written to the government of Ghana and the President to have us sit down and have this matter discussed at a round table conference. No attention has been paid to the letter”, he complained.
In his view, “Ghana should intensify its level of investigations against people who do things and not just suspect and arrest people.”
A few days ago, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said his government will deal with the secessionist groups.
Speaking for the first time about the attacks launched by these groups in some parts of the Volta region in recent times, Nana Akufo-Addo said: “It is just a handful of people; these secessionists”.
“We will deal with them”.
“I have no doubt about it but there is no value for this country if I start making hysterical statements”.
“I trust the security agencies, the armed forces, the police, I trust their leadership and intelligence agencies and I know they are all working very hard to make sure that this matter is dealt with as quickly as possible”, the President said in an interview on Accra-based Hello FM in Kumasi on Wednesday, 30 October 2020.
