PASTOR Godsfriend Edem Peter, head of the Believers Chapel International, in Ho, the Volta Regional capital, has been arrested and in connection with last Saturday’s declaration of independence for the Volta and Oti Regions, by the Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF).
The suspect, who was arrested at his home on Monday, was said to have played the role of master of ceremony (MC) at the function where the leader of the HSGF, Mr Charles Kudzordzi, proclaimed the ‘Republic of Western Togoland’.
When contacted by the Ghanaian Times yesterday, Corporal Prince Dogbatse, Public Relations Officer at the Volta Regional Police Headquarters, confirmed the arrest of the pastor, saying that the police were searching for several other members of the group.
However, the Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, reacted swiftly, saying that “we are on top of the issue and we will pick them up and deal swiftly and ruthlessly with them”.
The regional minster said that the move by the group was worthless and criminal.
According to Dr Letsa, the HSGF was no threat to the state, and urged all and sundry to go about their daily activities without any inhibition.
The group has been demanding the secession of the Volta Region and parts of the Northern, North East and Upper East regions to become the Western Togoland state as soon as possible.
It argues that by the dictates of the 1956 plebiscite, the terms were no longer binding on the parties and that even certain portions of present Ghana were not considered during the referendum.
The leader and seven other members of the group were arrested in May this year and detained in Accra for a while before they were released.
FROM ALBERTO MARIO NORETTI, HO
