The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), a civil society organization in Ghana has appealed to the media to support advocacy to end the menace of political party vigilantism which they it said has been threatening the democratic governance of the country.
The Coalition appealed to the Ghanaian media to support the fight against the menace and make it the centre of public discussions on the media front.
[contextly_sidebar id=”zYsnbjQGC0ehmfKUJ0j4sLDPhV87AYuW”]This was contained in a press briefing organized by the Coalition and addressed jointly by Messrs John Larvie and Nicholaus Akyire, both members of the CODEO Advisory Board after the first regional roundtable discussion on the menace of political party vigilantism in the Ghanaian politics at Koforidua.
The participants at the roundtable discussion included the media, representatives of the security services, civil society organizations, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), National Commission on Civic Educatiojn(NCCE) and representatives of the Political parties in the country.
CODEO urged all stakeholders including the political parties, security services and the public to work together to ensure the end of political party vigilantism in the country.
During the roundtable discussions, the participants blamed the inability of the security services in the country especially the police to provide equal and adequate security for the political parties and politicians during the electioneering process, which forced the political parties in opposition to raise their own security structures for their protection.
The participants called for constitutional reforms to eliminate the winner takes all syndrome from the politics of the country and review the appointment of the leadership of the security services to guarantee their tenure of office.
The participants also called for a collective efforts to provide jobs for the youth to help reduce the high unemployed young men and women who were easily recruited to serve in the various political vigilante groups in the country.
Violence by Delta Force, et.al
There have been various calls over the years to such vigilante groups disbanded.
The call was necessitated by violence some of the groups have perpetrated in recent times.
For instance some members of one of such groups affiliated to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Delta Force recently stormed a law court and freed some of its members who were facing charges of assault against a government official.
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Source: GNA