Court attack threat to Ghana’s stability – Analyst

The attack on the judiciary by members of the Delta Force threatens the security of the country, Patrick Stephenson, a policy analyst at IMANI Ghana, has said.

According to him the recent spate of vigilantism “stands the chance of creating instability for us as a country” and attacking the judiciary “undermines the institution of democratic governance”. For him, the country needs to find a solution to the “huge threat it poses before” it metamorphoses into an even bigger challenge.

He was reacting to the development on Thursday, April 6, involving 13 Delta Force members who escaped from police custody with the help of fellow Delta Force colleagues who had thronged the hearing at a Kumasi Circuit Court.

The 13, who were remanded into prison custody and billed to reappear on 20 April, were whisked away through the backdoor of the judge’s chamber by their supporters.

The suspects were standing trial for assaulting Ashanti regional security coordinator George Agyei on March 24 after his appointment, indicating that he was not its preferred candidate.

All 13 accused persons have since turned themselves in to the police.

Mr Stephenson, who was speaking on Class FM’s World Affairs programme on Friday April 7, told host Dr Etse Sikanku that the leadership of the country is to blame for the chaos.

He cautioned that militant groups such as Boko Haram and others did not spring up all of a sudden “but you have them build up gradually” and if leadership fails to “nip them in the bud for reasons either political or to satisfy certain interests then you have them blow out of proportion”.

For him, vigilante groups have been in existence for years but for some strange reasons “because they serve the interest of some political parties in the run-up to elections we fail as a leadership to effectively deal with it”.

He, therefore, charged authorities to clamp down on the menace due to the adverse consequences on the country, both on the domestic front and internationally.