Time to disband vigilante groups – John Boadu

The General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) John Boadu on Monday said the time has come for political vigilante groups to be disbanded.

He stated this when he appeared before the Emile Short-led Commission at the Osu Castle.

Asked by a member of the Commission, Professor Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu, if he thought political vigilante groups like the Delta Forces among others should continue to exist, Mr. Boadu retorted: “I think that where we are my Lord, no.”

When Professor Mensah-Bonsu further quizzed, “so we agreed to draw a line under everything that has happened?” “Yes my Lord,” Mr. Boadu affirmed noting that it was in the interest of the political parties to disband the vigilante groups affiliated to them.

Meanwhile, Mr. Boadu told the Commission he benefitted from the services of the Delta and Invisible Forces of the NPP.

“We as political parties, it will be out of place to provide security particularly if you have groups of people who outnumber the police at a particular place. We’ve had occasions where even voters queuing to vote are prevented from doing so and sometimes the police seem helpless."

“If you take the invisible forces, they are individual groups, not an organ of the party who have sympathies for the NPP…I in person I am a beneficiary of this groupings,” he said

Mr. Boadu, however, denied claims that the vigilante groups are sponsored and financed by the NPP. According to him, the groups are called upon by the party as and when their services are needed.