Sammy Awuku, NPP Youth Organiser
The National Youth Organiser of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Sammy Awuku, has categorically denied knowledge of the existence of pro-opposition vigilante group Bolgatanga Bulldogs.
The Bolga Bulldogs, a group of young men based in Kasoa, clashed with the party’s private security, The Invincible Forces, at the NPP headquarters following the suspension of national chairman Paul Afoko in October 2015, leading to damage to property.
But Mr Awuku said despite the group’s sympathies for its suspended chairman, Paul Afoko, it was not registered with the party and he had never met them.
“I swear I do not know them. I tell you, I don’t know them,” Mr Awuku told Chief Jerry Forson on Ghana Yensom, Accra FM’s morning show, Friday March 11.
“I have been actively campaigning in the Northern region but I don’t know the Bolga Bull Dogs; I don’t know their leader. So if I hear of them I get surprised. So it’s true I don’t know them, and they are not registered with my youth wing too.”
Mr Awuku rejected the assertion that the NPP's Invisible Forces had been formed for purposes of terror. He said the Forces “formed part of event organisers of the party”.
“I am an organiser, and as an organiser, I cannot be the only person doing the job. They (the Invincible Forces) help with preparations for party programmes, except they are quite aggressive. That’s why we keep talking to them.”
Mr Awuku’s comments come on the back of renewed assurances by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to crack down on party-affiliated vigilante groups in order to ensure a violence-free poll in Ghana in November 2016.
