Secessionist group, Concerned Citizens of Western Togoland (CCWTL), has revealed their main reason for pushing for a sovereign Western Togoland State as witnessed recently. According to them it is due to the neglect by the Government of Ghana to the problems burdening the region.
Registering their concerns in a brief meeting with the press covered by ghananewsonline.com.gh, the group argued that, the exclusion of the Volta region from the 2020 budget statement of Ghana is indicative that, the region is not part of Ghana – thus, they aren’t Ghanaians.
“The budget read in parliament a few days ago did not include the Volta region. The problems of Western Togoland [are] increasing… how can a country make a budget and leave [a region] out of it? It is clear [the government] is showing us the way that we are not Ghanaians,” Daniel Yevugah, a leading member of the group lamented.
According to him, the push for an independent Western Togoland State will be done peacefully and persistently through all the legitimate means available.
They urged all Members of Parliament (MP) from regions in Western Togoland to raise the concerns on the floor of Parliament and help foster the separation process from Ghana.
The Gold Coast – Western Togoland Union
According to the CCWTL, there are no documents whatsoever, legitimizing the union between Ghana and the then Western Togoland Territory.
According to a press statement released recently, signed by its Chairman, Mr Joseph Kugbe and copied to the ghananewsonline.com.gh, the group asserted that “unlike the union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar which became Tanzania in 1964 according to the effect of the letters of the union, we (Western Togoland) have no such letters, neither a similar marriage of names between Ghana and Western Togoland”.
They noted that, the absence of any proper union agreement throws doubt on the authenticity of the marriage between Ghana and Western Togoland as captured in history. Hence, a reason to call for a separation.
The group urged the government of Ghana to “listen to the protestations and petitions of the people of Western Togoland for a peaceable solution based on simple human rights international norms”.
Source: Jeorge Wilson Kingson and Jonas Danquah || ghananewsonline.com.gh