The National Security Minister, Albert Kan Dapaah, has urged Members of Parliament and politicians to desist from branding the fight against vigilante groups with political colours.
According to him, politicizing the fight will undermine the efforts of security agencies to clamp down on their illegal activities.
Addressing a question on the floor of Parliament by the Member of Parliament for Asawase constituency, Muntaka Mubarak, Mr. Kan Dapaah said such groups were not legally registered hence are not recognized by law.
“I believe it is important that we stop the activities of all such groups irrespective of what political party they are affiliated to and I continue to urge the house to help us find a solution to this problem. Which I must repeat again, it has all the tendencies to create huge security problems for us in the future.
“Let’s all come together, let’s get all such action groups to recognize that they are not to operate in the country and if they do, it will be taken as a law and order issue and they will have to go through the laws of the country as their punishment,” he said.
Some vigilante groups particularly affiliated to the New Patriotic Party in recent times, are reported to have carried out various violent attacks on some individuals, and taken over some state agencies following the party’s election victory.
One of such groups, Delta Force, recently stormed the premises of the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council and forcibly ejected the newly appointed regional security coordinator, Goerge Adjei from his office.
But speaking in Parliament on the matter, Kan Dapaah said, efforts are being made to stop such groups.
“There are no legally registered vigilante groups in this country and for that matter, there are no such groups to be disbanded. However, I think we need to be pragmatic and accept that foot soldiers of the leading political parties are known to constitute themselves into action troops to molest and unleash violence on the peace loving people of this country.”
“Mr. Speaker, we need to stop these groups because they have the tendency to degenerate into militant groups that can have serious repercussions on the security of this country. We must not mix criminality with politics, lawlessness must be punished. Government has made it clear through the IGP to deal appropriately with all criminals,” he said.
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