Politics of Friday, 12 October 2018

Source: yen.com.gh

NPP cannot disband the vigilante groups - Yaw Buabeng Asamoah

Yaw Buabeng Asamoah Yaw Buabeng Asamoah

The Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, has ruled out any plans of the party to disband pro-party vigilante groups.

According to him, the NPP did not form such groups, and it is therefore misplaced to task the party with the job of dissolving them.

Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Wednesday, October 10, 2018, he explained that “when the party puts something together, the party can disband.”

He went on to say that groups such as the Delta Force are associations just like the Association of Freight Forwarders.

According to him, the groups came about to help with crowd control whenever the party was out there doing rallies and holding a congress.

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

YEN.com.gh earlier reported that the Kandahar Boys forced the Chief Executive Officer of the Tamale Teaching Hospital, David Zaawumya Akolbila, out of his office and locked it up.

They were later arrested by the police, and consequently issued an apology for their actions.

YEN.com.gh again reported that the Delta Force disrupted a party meeting at Old Tafo in the party’s stronghold the Ashanti region.

The MP for Old Tafo, Dr. Osei Akoto, who attended the meeting was whisked away to safety. Two suspects have been arrested by the police, as investigations into the incident continue.

In the wake of these acts, Asamoah stressed that focus must not be to criminalise the group but criminalise members within the group found to have broken the law.

He added that while the demands and needs which these groups look to government to fulfill may be legitimate, their methods are criminal.