Ghana’s Inspector General of Police (IGP) has demanded the two biggest political parties in the country to immediately condemn and disband their vigilante groups, saying the police have resolved to ‘fight’ such groups.
David Asante-Apeatu warned that the Ghana Police Service (GPS) is determined to more political vigilantism, whose conducts is fast threatening the peaceful democracy Ghana is renowned for.
Whilst the ruling government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) cannot deny setting up para-military groups in parts of the regions, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), too, cannot claim innocence of its Hawks, a vigilante group of the party.
Civil Society Organizations’ calls on these two political parties especially the government, whose vigilante groups have visited series of violence on Ghanaians since the party took over the reins of governance, to disband their hoodlums have failed.
The GPS, who is expected to use its constitutional backing to make the thuggish groups barren, has itself been rendered ineffective by politicians, thus giving these criminal groups the field day to cause mayhem and maim unarmed citizens.
The latest act of violence was the one recorded at the Wuogon by-election where some masked armed personnel deployed by the Minister of State in charge of National Security, Bryan Acheampong, brutalized defenceless civilians.
The GPS, however, had stated that it did not know these personnel, who the Minister said were operatives of the National Security.
At a presser at the Police Headquarters, Accra, on Thursday February 14, 2019, the IGP declared ‘Operation Zero Tolerance for Vigilantism’, consequently, announcing the readiness of the police to go hard on vigilantes.
He, on this note, advised any other political party, apart from the NDC and NPP, to desist from setting up any form para-military group “because we will not spare anybody from today.”
By: Umar Sheriff/awakenewsonline.com
