PENTECOSTAL, CHARISMATIC COUNCIL CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT MEDIATORS IN SECESSIONIST TENSIONS
The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) wants the government to constitute an independent committee to negotiate with the Western Togoland secessionist group, Homeland Study Group Foundation.
Following incidents of violence allegedly perpetrated by the group, the council has stressed that violence will not resolve the tensions.
“Let our brothers and sisters from that part of Ghana who feel aggrieved or who have issues come and lay their problems on the table and then we can begin from there,” the President of the GPCC, Rev. Prof. Paul Yaw Frimpong-Manso said.
He also suggested that any committee formed should be as diverse as possible.
“Bring people irrespective of political background, religious background, ethnic background, people who have got the experience and the know-how and let them form a committee, possibly independent. Fighting blockages and all those things will not solve the problem.”
The activities of the purported secessionists have escalated in recent days following last Friday’s roadblocks and attacks on police.
Members of the Homeland Study Group Foundation mounted roadblocks on the Juapong–Accra and Sogakope–Accra main roads.
Some attackers also besieged the Aveyime and Mepe police stations freeing inmates and making away with assault rifles and shotguns.
Others attacked the North Tongu District Assembly and made away with a Toyota Hilux pick up vehicle belonging to the Assembly after they took the official Toyota Land cruiser pickup belonging to the Tongu Divisional Commander of Police, Dennis Fiakpui.
At least one person was killed following the ensuing confrontations between security personnel and about 35 persons were arrested following the disturbances on Friday.
On Monday, 31 of them were put before a circuit court in Accra and charged on three counts of conspiracy to commit the crime of rioting, substantive offence of rioting and being at an unlawful place.
In the most recent incident, purported secessionists attacked the State Transport Corporation (STC) in the Volta Regional capital, Ho, and set ablaze one of its buses.
About The Author
