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Member of Parliament for Adenta and communication director of the new patriotic party, Hon. Yaw Buabeng Asamoah has explained that they cannot disband vigilante groups. 

He says they can rather be regulated.

Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Programme, he explained that with their contribution to the country’s body politics, they have come to stay.

Both political divides have it and they are part of us now, irrespective of what they do.

Disbanding them is not an option because they can resurrect with another name. What we can do is that we can make laws to regulate their activities he insisted.

In as much as the party condemn such acts of impunity, there should a way to check their activities and not have them destroy the country's democracy, he expained.

The Akufo-Addo government is under renewed pressure to root out groups like Delta Force, Invisible Force, Kandahar Boy.

No one has been jailed although a court fined 13 Delta Force members ¢1800 each for rioting in March 2018besieged the office of the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council and physically assaulted the security capo, George Agyei.

There was public disappointment with the judgment which was deemed not deterrent enough. But the NPP said the judgment was evidence of the government's commitment to punishing crimes irrespective of party affiliation.

The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has called on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to, as a matter of urgency, disband all political party vigilante groups in the country.

The call by the NCCE comes at the heel of an attack by the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) vigilante group, the Delta Force, on the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Tafo Pankrono Constituency, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei during a meeting with members and executives of his constituency.

The meeting was disrupted by Delta Force vigilantes whose acts, the NCCE said, threatened the MP and party executive present, adding that “Delta Force hoodlums have become notorious for the use of force and violence and total disregard for law and order.”

The NCCE, in making the call, also urged the security agencies to hasten investigations into the latest incident and bring the perpetrators to book.

Addressing a press conference in Accra, the Chairperson of the NCCE, Ms Josephine Nkrumah, said “it is by so doing that a clear warning and lasting signal will be sent to others who are contemplating unleashing similar negative acts.”

National crisis

Describing the occurrence as a “national crisis”, it called on political party leaders to genuinely exhibit to Ghanaians that they had respect for the rule of law and that no individual or group of persons could hold the country to ransom under the guise of political party vigilantism.

“They must show commitment to peace and national stability by disbanding immediately all militant groups within their rank and file. Enough of the lip service to the rule of law. We, Ghanaians, demand that laws and institutions must be allowed to work without fear of favour,” the commission posited.

Ms Nkrumah said the NCCE had repeatedly expressed its revulsion at political party vigilantes, particularly of the NPP and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who take the law into their own hands and cause social dislocation.

Only Akufo-Addo can stop vigilante groups in NPP – Asiedu Nketia
General Secretary for the National Democratic Congress, Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, has expressed concerns about the actions of the vigilante groups disrupting the peace of the country.

His reaction follows Delta force vigilante group’s action that interrupted a meeting in which Dr Anthony Akoto Osei the Member of Parliament for Tafo Pankrono and the Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation was present in the Ashanti Region.

But Mr Nketiah said the vigilante groups cannot be blamed for their actions since state security seems redundant and inactive on the vigilante issues in Ghana.

However, two (2) members of the delta force group who were arrested in connection with the  Tafo pankrono violence have been remanded into police custody following the appearance in court yesterday,10th october 2018.