Only evil, wicked & unwise people will kick against vigilante groups - Delta Force

Chairman and commander of pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) vigilante group, Delta Force, Kojo Fosu Bamba has taken a swipe at critics who have called for the disbanding of vigilante groups including theirs.

He told Rainbow Radio such individuals do not know what they talk about and their reasons assigned for their arguments are baseless.

Kojo Foseu Bamba said, people who denigrated their activities lack positive logical thinking because the activities by NPP vigilante groups have served good purpose for both the NPP and the country at large.

The 1992 constitution of Ghana he argued allows Ghanaians who are 18 years and above to vote and because of that, the opposition NDC in the past used various means to prevent people from voting in areas they felt were strongholds of the NPP and so ‘’as youth of the party, we decided to form theses groups to protect the interest of the Ghanaian voter and prevent people from engaging in violent activities.’’

"And so anyone who is not in support with what we do is a nation wrecker, unpatriotic and evil, he added. When confronted with the question of the role of the police in maintaining law and order, he justified it by saying the civilian has a role in arresting criminals and as a group, they feel they are obliged to help the police to deal with criminal activities.

In February this year, General Secretary of the NPP, John Boadu justified the existence of the vigilante groups in NPP. The groups he noted were formed to provide protection for the NPP. His comments followed a survey conducted by Centre for Democratic Governance (CDD-Ghana), which had majority of over 2, 400 respondents calling for such groups to be disbanded.

The survey which interviewed 2,400 adult Ghanaians between 9 and 25th September 2017 said: “They [Ghanaians] want the police to handle suspected criminals and the courts to prosecute and punish those involved in unlawful acts of vigilantism.”

“However, the fact that about one in seven Ghanaians think it is sometimes justified for citizens to take the law into their own hands is disturbing and should be addressed,” noted the report. But reacting to the report Mr Boadu said:

“In times of peace people think that they must not prepare for war, it is rather in times of peace that you should always prepare. I’m giving you the background of what we found ourselves, to the extent that our headquarters was vandalized all our resources, our materials were destroyed. We must protect ourselves, we must make sure that at least our properties and persons are protected.

“It is for that reason that we have young men who help in protecting us and I’ll support them any day. That’s not to say that they must take the law into their own hands, no, they must work within the law. They exist, they’ll continue to exist.”