PNC hinges hope on vigilante group

The People National Convention (PNC) is considering forming a vigilante group to help it during elections, Atik Mohammed, General Secretary of the party, has stated.

According to him, it has become clear that the main political parties in the country – the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) – have the vigilante groups which protect them during elections.

Mr Atik Mohammed said until all political parties accept that vigilante groups are dangerous to the body politics of the country and unsafe in the practice of democracy, the PNC will not hesitate to form a vigilante group.

The General Secretary made the remarks yesterday during the opening session of a three-day Post-Election Stakeholders’ Review Workshop on the 2016 General Election at Big-Ada in the Greater Accra Region.

He said the party would consult all its branches in the country to help recruit people for the vigilante group to protect the PNC’s interest.

The aim of the workshop, which has attracted representatives of all political parties in the country, civil society organisations, media practitioners and all stakeholders in elections to assess the conduct of the 2016 general election, was organised by the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Mr Atik Mohammed said PNC would not allow the NPP and the NDC to have exclusive rights over the formation of these groups because all the other political parties are also capable of forming theirs.

He advised the leading political parties to disavow all groups for the security agents to handle security matters since such groups are “terrible organizations which should not be condoned in our body politics….”

In a quick response, Kwesi Jonah of CDD-Ghana mentioned that available research proves that it takes more resources to maintain a vigilante group and that with the financial muscle of the PNC, it would not be prudent for it to have one.