5 Western Togoland secessionists jailed five years

The Accra High Court has sentenced five members of the Western Togoland Restoration Front (WTRF) to five years imprisonment each in hard labour.

The convicts in 2020 attacked police officers, destroyed a police car and a police station as well as blocked roads leading to the Volta Region in an attempt to prevent people from other parts of Ghana to access the Volta Region.

Their reason was that they wanted to secede from Ghana.

The convicts are Ebenezer Gblorkpor, Afetorgbor Kpogo, Joseph Nyamewu, Wisdom Kuvor, and Israel Bessah Kpexor.

They were sentenced for belonging to Western Togoland Restoration Front, a prohibited group with a mission to secede the Volta and Oti Regions from Ghana.

The five years sentence was the highest allowed under the law.

Graphic Online’s Emmanuel Ebo Hawkson reports from the court that delivering the sentence today (March 21, 2023), the presiding judge, Justice Mary Yanzur,  said the five convicts were part of the WTRF group that attacked police officers, destroyed a police car and a police station as well as blocked roads leading to the Volta Region in 2020.

She said the actions of the five was premeditated, aggravated and an affront to the national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.

According to the judge, although she took into consideration the fact that the five convicts had already spent about two years on remand, the court decided to impose a harsh sentence to deter  persons who intends to engage in acts that affected the national security and sovereignty of the country.

Source: Graphic Online