Vigilantism: IGP can do better – Dery

Interior Minister Ambrose Dery has said even though the Inspector General of Police has not failed in the fight against political vigilantism, he can do better to curb the menace.

Reports of vandalism attributed to youth groups affiliated with the ruling New Patriotic Party has soared since the party won power in December 2016.

Over the last few weeks, NPP vigilante groups in the Northern region have repeatedly impeded officials of the school feeding programme from doing their work over claims that the process that led to their appointment was skewed. They have hence threatened to keep the doors to the secretariat of the program in the region locked until their preferred choice of staff are selected.

In Accra and other places in the country, different vigilante groups under different names, all associated with the NPP, have stormed state offices and seized state properties as part of protests against individuals working there.

The development has been condemned by several groups in the country, the latest being the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist church.

Reacting to the development, Mr. Dery told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Monday that although the government is committed to rid the country of thugs, they need the support of the citizens.

“Without support from the citizenry, we’ll have a challenge dealing with some of these things. We are not condoning any of the activities of the vigilante groups. We can do better and we should do better in dealing with the issue of vigilantism. The police depend on Intelligence to work, I will not say the IGP has failed, the IGP can do better but he has not failed. The activities of vigilante groups come as a surprise and the police are doing their best. We’ll push the police and other agencies to go as far as they can to ensure sanity in the system,” he assured.