The Executive Director of Irbard Security Consult, Irbard Ibrahim has attributed the proliferation of vigilante groups in the country to the failure of successive governments to query their existence and halt their operations.
He is therefore calling on the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to speak against and disown these political-based vigilante groups. He also called on the president to empower the national security agencies to clamp down on these vigilante groups.
In an interview with Henry Eliud Yankey on Connect FM’s weekday political program ‘Asem Yi Dzi Ka’ on Monday, Mr. Ibrahim said the insurgence of these groups is an indication that “Ghana lacks comprehensive strategies to counter vigilante groups”.
He added that new groups are springing up of late because the negative operations of the existing vigilante groups are not being condemned.
“Some of these young men feel emboldened to form such groups because the traditional ones instead of vilifying them we are glorifying them, instead of denouncing them rather, we are praising them.”
He revealed that President Akufo-Addo is not able to denounce these groups because the “president’s hands are tied”, noting that every government knows power cannot be willed to one political party hence the creation of such vigilante groups for their safety.
The security analysis opined, political parties tolerate such groups because they do not have state security apparatus at their disposal when they are in opposition.
“President is afraid because his incumbent party is harboring fear of going into opposition either after 4 years or 40 years and as a result cannot be too hard on clamping down on these gentlemen or young men; if they do, they lose protection should they go into opposition,” Irbard Ibrahim observed.
He however encouraged the president to “speak, name these groups declare them persona non grata and embolden our security system to deal with them”.
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