Blame Akufo-Addo for brazen attacks by National Security operatives - Peter Otokunor

Peter Boamah Otokunor, the Deputy General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress, NDC, has asserted that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo should be held liable for the recent attacks on some Ghanaians by operatives of the National Security.

In the past week, personnel from the National Security have arrested and allegedly brutalized a journalist by name Caleb Kudah.

They have also stormed the office of the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinater to forcibly remove DCOP Opare Addo Ayensu from office.

Speaking in a GhanaWeb interview, Peter Boamah said that the case of DCOP Ayensu is a situation of the “the chicken coming home to roost.”

He said that the attack which according to DCOP Opare Addo was undertaken by members of the Delta Force vigilante group is vindication of the NDC’s long-held position that the talk about the disbandment of vigilante groups was a sham.

According to him, right from the Ayawaso West Wuogon incident, the government showed that it was more committed to protecting its vigilante members than citizens.

Otokunor told GhanaWeb that “President Akufo-Addo must be held responsible for the embarrassment and brutalities these vigilante groups are causing. It is sad that we are getting to this point. Akufo-Addo has thrown everything to the dogs with his group of Azugu boys and we must speak against it."

He urged the various Civil Society Organizations and religious institutions to join forces with the NDC to kick against the activities of the vigilante groups.

“This level of Azugu and vigilante government must be condemned. It is most bizarre and it should not be accepted. Now, the NDC stands vindicated. We stand vindicated. We must collectively, together (with) CSOs and religious group, rise up and kick against the continuous perpetuation of these vigilante members.

“We made the case strongly about how these vigilante groups are group of criminals who have clothed themselves with the NPP, fully sponsored by the president to conduct act of heinous crimes and brutalities on political opponents.

“We made that point because we knew the government was fully supporting these groups and actually integrated them into the security set up, from the testimony of DCOP Opare Addo. You’ll recall that the Short Commission reported that these people who have been merged into the security architecture should be identified and removed. The report of the Short Commission was rejected by the President.

“We’ve continuously made the point that there is a need for the security architecture including government to be part of the roadmap for rooting out this vigilante issue, they refused and it delayed the signing of the document for a while.

“As we speak, that has not been done and these criminals are going about brazenly doing what they do best with party leadership support. What happened in Kumasi is the most bizarre and lowest part of our democracy but does not surprise us because we’ve even gone lower than this,” he told GhanaWeb.

Otokunor noted that despite claims of the disbandment of the Delta Force group, there have been incidents where members of the group have been seen in various acts of violence.

"They forcibly removed the Ashanti Regional Coordinator of the National Security. They got their boys to chase a sitting judge out of court and nothing happened to them. We have made the point that President Akufo-Addo has been complicit. In fact he has been the lifeline for these vigilante groups operating in the country."