The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) are scheduled to meet today over political vigilantism that has become a serious threat to national security.
The meeting follows a compromise reached by the two main parties to make the National Peace Council (NPC) the mediator to halt political party thuggery in the country after initial disagreements.
NPC, chaired by the Most Reverend Prof. Emmanuel Asante, is expected to be a neutral mediator that will persuade NPP and NDC to disband their hoodlums who have consistently taken the nation to ransom during elections.
The acting Executive Secretary of the NPC, Mr. George Amoh in a letter to the two political parties mentioned Central Hotel, near the British High Commission in Accra as the venue for the meeting.
According to the letter, the meeting would focus primarily on terms of engagement and ground rules and that draft copies of the documents that would form the basis of discussions would be forwarded to the party before the meeting.
It indicated that for effective discussions, each party was expected to bring not more than seven representatives.
Akufo-Addo’s appeal
It would be recalled that President Nana Akufo-Addo in his State of the Nation Address in Parliament on February 21, 2019, entreated the leadership of the two main political parties to help find a lasting solution to the menace of political vigilantism in Ghana.
President Akufo-Addo’s call followed acts of vigilantism that took place during the January 31, 2019 Ayawaso West Wuogon Constituency by-election.
The violent incident culminated in the President setting up a Commission of Enquiry chaired by Justice Francis Emile Short, former Commissioner of Commission on Human Rights and Administration Justice (CHRAJ) to look into the disturbances and provide recommendations on the way forward.
The Commission had a renowned law lecturer Prof. Henrietta Mensah Bonsu and former IGP Mr. Patrick Kwarteng Acheampong as members with another celebrated law lecturer Dr. Kofi Abotsi as Secretary.
President Akufo-Addo was optimistic that the findings of the three-member Emile Short Commission of Enquiry that characterised the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election would help prevent future occurrences of politically related violence orchestrated by party vigilante groups.
He indicated that citizens and future generations would not forgive the current leaders if they sat aloof for the country’s peace to be undermined by politically related violence.
President Akufo-Addo said he had personally asked the leadership of the NPP to write to the NDC so that they could, together, plan a meeting to find ways to end the increasing threats of political vigilantism in the country.
He served notice that failure of the leadership of the two major political parties to end politically related violence as a result of vigilantism would compel him to initiate a Legislative Instrument to end the practice.
NDC’s reaction
NDC Chairman Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo in a letter to the President welcomed the call for a joint meeting between the two main political parties to fashion out solutions to end vigilantism.
He however indicated that the NDC was “aware that the Commission of Enquiry tasked to probe the Ayawaso West Wuogon by election violence established clearly that elements of the vigilante groups apparently sponsored by your party have already been absorbed into the national security system”.
Akufo-Addo’s rebuttal
Responding to the NDC’s letter, President Akufo-Addo said in a letter dated March 4, 2019 that the assertion by the opposition party was not true.
“First, contrary to your assertion, no evidence has been established at the ongoing Short Commission about the sponsorship by the New Patriotic Party of vigilantes into the national security system. No such sponsorship has taken place, and none will take place. In any event, it is surely prejudicial to the work of the commission for citizens to start drawing conclusions on the material before the commission, prior to the commission making its own findings and recommendations on the matter,” President Akufo-Addo noted.
He gave assurance that the NPP had no plans to employ the services of party militia in the upcoming general election in 2020.
“Second, neither the government nor the ruling New Patriotic Party has made any plans to ‘recruit party thugs for the 2020 general election’.
“No such directive has been given, nor will any such directive be given, and no such recruitment is taking place. Neither the New Patriotic Party nor I need political party thugs to win the 2020 election. We will do so on the basis of our record, our argument and our values.”
Consensus reached
The NDC subsequently requested that the National Peace Council mediate the discussions between the two political parties and other stakeholders.
Consequently, the General Secretary of the NPP, Mr John Boadu, in a letter to the chairman of the National Peace Council, agreed to the NDC’s request to have the NPC mediate the meeting but insisted on the need for the two parties to meet first and agree on the modalities for the engagement.
Eventually, the NPC, in a letter dated March 25, 2019, wrote to the NDC indicating that it had received a letter from the NPP in which it had agreed to the NDC’s suggestion that the NPC mediates the meeting between the two parties and gave an assurance that it would come up with a schedule for the planned engagement.
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Sources-The Custodian
