Volta secessionists were treated with kid gloves – Former CID Boss

The former Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department, COP Bright Oduro Rtd, has chastised the Police Service for not decisively dealing with some members of secessionist groups agitating for the breakaway of some parts of the Volta region.

According to COP Oduro, if members of the Western Togoland group who were arrested in 2017 had been severely dealt with, the recent attack on a Police station and the road blocks in the Volta would not have occurred.

Speaking on Starr FM’s Analyses on Saturday, COP Oduro said the security situation in the Volta region deteriorated because the Police Service treated members of the Western Togoland group with “kid gloves”.

“This thing started in 2017 and by now we should have decisively dealt with them and that is why it has festered to this level, The Volta secessionists were treated with kid gloves

“We (Police) arrested them and brought to Accra, and then what happened, they were allowed to go since 2017 and now they are blocking roads and attacking police station and all that, we should have decisively dealt with them long time. So as for that matter the least said about it the better,” COP Oduro said.

Members of the Western Togoland group recently blocked all access routes into Volta region and seized ammunition belonging to the Police after an attack on a Police station.

The group later attacked the STC yard in the Volta region and set some vehicles ablaze. In total, over 60 people have been arrested for the disturbances.

The agitations of the separatists group is in demand for the independence of the Volta region and all other parts of the country being referred to as the Western Togoland prior to the 1956 plebiscite.

It is now emerging that there are about nine splinter groups leading the campaign which includes Papavi Hogbedetor’s Homeland Study Group and the Western Togoland Restoration Front.