Soldiers storm alleged separatists training camp, arrest 21 suspects

Personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces have arrested 21 suspected members of separatists group, Homeland Study Group Foundation in the Volta Region.

The suspects comprising 20 males and a female were rounded up at their training camp in a forest in Kpevedui during the early hours of Monday by soldiers of the 66 Artillery Regiment.

Over 40 soldiers were accompanied by two crime scene investigators from the police for the operation.

The Commanding Officer of the regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Baba Pantoah, told the media that about three other suspected separatists escaped before the arrests were made.

The suspects are expected to be airlifted to Accra later on.

Despite the conclusions of investigations, Colonel Baba Pantoah was adamant that the persons arrested were part of the separatist movement.

“What were they doing here around 2 am in this thick forest? We are convinced they are members [of the movement] but further investigations will establish other facts,” he added.

This is the largest arrest of suspected separatists since December 2019.

18 men were on December 27, 2019, at Dipa, a village in the Nanumba North Municipality for allegedly having a meeting to discuss the separatist activities.

They were rounded up on the meeting grounds with a joint police and military and a Bureau of National Investigations officer.

They were taken to the Yendi Circuit Court where they were charged with treason felony.

On December 9,  10 suspected members of the movement were also arrested in Tumu in the Upper West Region.

Declaration of independence

The leader of the Separatist movement, Mr. Charles Komi Kudzordzi alias Papavi Hogbedetor declared independence on November 17.

The event which was broadcast live on Facebook by some members of the group took place at the former premises of Unity Rural Bank, some 100metres away from the Ho Police Training school.

The Homeland Study Group Foundation, which intensified its campaign to secede the Volta Region and parts of the then Northern and Upper East Regions along the eastern border of Ghana into an independent state in 2017, has had its leaders arrested and charged with treason felony on at least two occasions in recent times.