Lawyer for 31 alleged secessionists currently in the custody of the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI), Theophilus Donkor insists his clients are not members of the Homeland Study Group Foundation (HSGF).
According to him, his clients were innocently rounded up in a joint police-military swoop long after the perpetrators of Friday’s incident had fled the scene.
The Lawyer indicated that the arrested persons were made up of driver’s mates, travellers and farmers going about their normal duties with others going to the scene of the incident out of curiosity.
He made this known in an interview with Happy 98.9 FM’s Samuel Eshun, host of the Happy Morning Show.
Theophilus motioned that real-time footages of the roadblocks showed members of the secessionist group “wearing black shirts and green khaki trousers, but if you look at the accused persons, they were not clothed as such. Some wore shorts and slippers. These 31 people are not part of the secessionist group and are by no way associated with them.”
He furthered that upon meeting with the accused persons who had already been interrogated on three separate occasions, they (suspects) repeatedly denied being members of the secessionist group.
With the youngest of these suspects being 18 years and the oldest 75 years, these 31 persons are facing various charges including ‘Rioting with Offensive Weapons’ which carries a 25-year jail term.
The Lawyer, championing for the freedom of his clients indicated, “The charges are serious ones” and urged the security agencies to do their due diligence and not prosecute innocent citizens whilst members of the secessionist group go around to cause more disturbances.
Members of the Volta Secessionist group blocked major roads in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region and launched a simultaneous attack on two police stations in the towns of Mepe and Aveyime, ransacking their armoury and taking into custody 3 police officers
This was done in an attempt to proclaim their sovereignty and demand that the government of Ghana recognize them as an independent state.
A joint security task force was deployed to the region to restore calm and some 31 suspected secessionists in the process.
By: Joel Sanco
