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The National Peace Council (NPC) cannot operate beyond its boundaries in attempt to broker peace during violence or conflicts, a member has said.

The NPC has come under heavy public backlash for failing to condemn various acts of violence in parts of the country in recent times. 

Speaking in an interview on Asaase Radio, a member of the NPC, Maulvi Mohammed Bin Salih said: “There are many people in Ghana, for instance, one journalist called me one day, he was asking me, Peace Council where were you when this was going on, where were you when that was going on.

“Then I asked him, you are a journalist, the Peace Council was formed through an act of Parliament, have you read that act, he said ‘no’… then I said well, ‘then it is wrong for you not to read the act and condemn the Council’.”

Maulvi Bin Salih, who doubles as the Ameer of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Ghana, said the Council cannot perpetuate an illegality by acting beyond its mandate.

“You see the NPC was brought through an act of Parliament, it has been assigned duties, we have parameters, we can not go beyond this and beyond that, and so we cannot overstep our boundaries, once we do that, we are carrying out an illegality and you sitting down can take us to court.

“Most people don’t know that, and they think we are like a high court or a Supreme Court and we can talk harshly to people, we don’t do that, you reason with people, that is what we do,” Maulvi Bin Salih said.

Funding hurdle
He said funding has been the NPC’s biggest challenge.

“The biggest challenge of the Council is that the Act was put in place but the funding component of the Peace Council wasn’t adequately put in place so, the funds are not readily available for the peace council to promptly carry out some of its activities,” Maulvi Bin Salih.