By Peter Agengre
The North East Regional Minister, Dr. Yidana Zakaria, has warned political parties and other organisations that have ever involved themselves in vigilante activities in the country to remain silent or risk facing the law should they attempt to resurface.
According to him, the Regional Security Council would not tolerate any such groupings in the region and would sanction the police to deal with such groupings.
“The tendency of some vigilante groups appearing closer to elections 2024 is very high. And I want to urge everybody that, as chairman of the Regional Security Council, I can only work with state institutions and state security agencies mandated to protect the peace and stability of this country,” he said.
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, assented to the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act, 2019, which bans acts of vigilantism in Ghana and disbands vigilante groups, including political party vigilante groups and land guards. According to the bill, “a person who directly or indirectly instigates or solicits the activity of a vigilante, facilitates or encourages vigilantism, or conceals a vigilante to avoid lawful arrest, commits an offence, and is liable, on conviction, to a term of imprisonment of not less than ten (10) years and not more than fifteen (15) years.”
Addressing stakeholders at the fifth Inter-Party National Dialogue Meeting organised by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) at Nalerigu, Dr. Zakaria noted that vigilante groupings have the tendency of exposing violent extremist activities to communities.
He appealed to the chiefs and security personnel to be on the lookout for such characters.
“If there’s anyone thinking anywhere in the region that we will revisit political vigilantism, it’s a nonstarter. By this, I am appealing to the security agencies that the Regional Security Council will not tolerate any such acts. When we do that, we make attempts to mortgage our democracy and I don’t think anybody in his right senses will do so,” he concluded.
