Ghana’s security intact - Kofi Bentil

The security of Ghana has not broken down, although there have been pockets of violence in the country perpetrated by some vigilante groups affiliated to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and other miscreants, Kofi Bentil, Vice President of IMANI Ghana, has said.

According to him, the actions of members of the Delta Force, a private security arm within the NPP, cannot be said to have brought Ghana’s security to its knees.

The group on March 24 attacked the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator, George Agyei, and bundled him out of his office, saying he was not native to the region and did not partake in the 2016 electoral campaign that brought the NPP to power. 13 members of the group were arrested and put before court on assault-related charges and were remanded in custody only for some of their colleagues to attack the court and aid their escape from police custody.

At a press conference on Tuesday April 18, Minority MPs of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) said that the security of this country was threatened under President Akufo-Addo on the back of such happenings which they likened to activities of Nigerian terror group Boko Haram.

NDC National Chairman Kofi Portuphy also said the country’s image had been dented given the impunity with which the two groups operate.

He warned: “The real danger in not dealing swiftly and ruthlessly with insipid domestic political terrorism is that it can easily grow uncontrollably into armed terrorism of international proportion.”

But assessing the first 100 days of the president while speaking to GHOne television on Tuesday April 18, Mr Bentil said: “Our view is that generally speaking the government is on track. There are a number of things that we would have expected would have more effects, for instance reducing the cost of energy for the average person. But it is our view that generally speaking the government is on track.

“There are certain things that have happened, for instance security breaches which I think are important. But we must take them in context. We should not think that because of that particular occurrence the whole security system is in shambles. We think that if the government continues in this fashion, it is likely that it will achieve most of its promises.

“The 100 days is not enough time to judge anything. It is just enough time to give indicators. Indicators will just give you a certain sense of how well something is going to move, so based on that alone we can say that what we have seen is more positive and we think that if they continue like this they are likely to achieve most of their promises.”