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Of vigilante groups and threat to rule of law!

Delta Force A picture of aggrieved members of the Delta force

Mon, 10 Apr 2017 Source: todaygh.com

SO it happened again last week. This time round the incident was at the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) Circuit Court where some members of Delta Force, a political vigilante group aligned to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), struck again!

ACCORDING to reports, some members of Delta Force last week Thursday, April 06, 2017 invaded the Circuit Court where thirteen (13) of their members who had been arraigned for the crime of forcibly throwing the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator, Mr. George Adjei, out of office. That unfortunate incident happened on March 14, 2017.

AND interestingly not even the presence of police personnel at the court premise was enough to deter these Delta Force members who almost on a weekly basis appear in the news. Thankfully, 8 out of the freed 13 were immediately rearrested. That was indeed a bit of good news.

IMMEDIATELY after that lawless incident, government through the Ministry of Interior held a press conference that same day where Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery, who addressed the press, condemned the action by those recalcitrant Delta Force members, and expressed government’s readiness to ensure that the law deals with them accordingly. The minister was very firm in his position that “absolutely no one is above the law.”

IN the opinion of Today that is what it ought to be, and we agree totally with the interior minister. “The government totally condemns the situation and will not relent in its efforts to clamp down on their activities,” Mr. Dery further stressed.

Minister, it is good that your outfit quickly came out to condemn the action by members of a group affiliated to your party. But Today wants to say that we need to move beyond the condemnations.

THE continuous unlawful activities of both the Invisible Forces and Delta Force (two political vigilante groups associated with the ruling NPP) must not be taken lightly at all.

THE NPP prides itself as a group that believes in the rule of law.

That is precisely the reason why Ghanaians are questioning why a group that is openly associated with the party and causing mayhem with all the impunity, discrediting the President, the government of which he is the leader and the party should not be made to face the full rigours of the law to curb their lawlessness and serve as a deterrent to others.

IT must be pointed out that these Delta Force members are not only giving the ruling NPP a bad name, their impunities are also casting Ghana in a bad light. Equally worrying is the fact that their actions have become a threat to national security.

FOR them to muster courage and storm a courtroom with the intention of freeing some of their members who have fallen foul of the law and are being dealt with leaves much to be desired. Last Thursday’s incident was a threat to an arm of government, the judiciary must be taken seriously with no form of mercy.

TODAY is in agreement with all the many voices that have come up against any such actions that undermine security, are lawless in character and threaten the peace of the people. Impunities and lawlessness should not be seen to be given protection in our country because it is coming from a certain quarter. There are no set of laws for Party A or Party B, whether that party is in power or out of power. The neutrality of the law must be seen to be working in a country that is championing investments, foreign or local, that would create jobs for its unemployed youth.

HAVING said that, we want to use this medium once again to charge our security agencies to be on top of such issues. They must be proactive enough to be able to ward off some of these security threatening incidences. Ordinarily, the nature of the trial in question was enough to have forewarned the security agencies that extra security measures were needed at the court’s precinct last Thursday.

WE need peace and tranquility to focus on the fruitful agenda to develop Ghana and move it to the level it deserves to be 60 years on. For whatever reasons these vigilante groups were formed during the campaign periods, the elections are way over, and what we need now are positive and fruitful efforts that would help Ghana move on and not fruitless ventures and impunities that would undermine our peace and security. We would like to add to the many calls on the NPP to seriously engage their vigilante groups to save the country from needless setbacks.

Columnist: todaygh.com