National Security Minister Declares War on Vigilante Groups

The Minister of State in Charge of National Security, Bryan Acheampong, has promised to wage a war on vigilante groups whose activities disrupt the peace of the country.

“We as National Security… don’t recognise any of these vigilante groups apart from the Youth Wings of the political parties and any other institutions outside of these wings that do anything against the law would be dealt with just as it would be done to the recognised groups because law and order must be maintained in this country.”

Mr. Acheampong’s promise follows a recent attack on a state official in Kumasi by pro-New Patriotic Party (NPP) vigilante group, Delta Force, over the weekend.

Attack

The heavily-built members of Delta Force disrupted a meeting of constituency executives which was being chaired by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Old Tafo Pankrono Constituency, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, who is also Minister of state for Monitoring and Evaluation.

The pro-NPP vigilante group was agitating over the Minister’s failure to fulfil his promise to get the government to recruit them into the security agencies of the country.

Reports indicated that they attempted to assault the Minister, but he escaped unhurt.

But speaking on Adom FM’s Current Affairs show, Burning Issues on Monday, Bryan Acheampong indicated “we are not going to form an NPP-police and the fact that the NPP has won the election doesn’t mean we should recruit all the youth into the security agencies”.

Face The Law

Bryan, who is also NPP MP for Abetifi said the governing party does not recognise the vigilante group and has vowed to let them face the law.

He said any youth who qualifies to work in any of the state agencies can apply and go through the requisite process of recruitment since that is the best practice for the safety of the country.

“If the security agencies are recruiting and they qualify, let them apply and go through the process, in the past where people were merely taken into the service anyhow are gone.

“We don’t want to create an environment that a new government is in power and therefore everybody must enter the security services. We can’t build a country in that way,” he stated.

The Minister of State however admitted that, “People have genuine concerns, with the people in the NPP, the young men that supported this party, the youth of Ghana and the President is doing everything he can; the economic management team is doing everything they can to create short-term solution such as NABCO, Forestry and others whilst they find long-term solutions to solve our unemployment problems”.

“We are building Ghana to compete internationally so it takes some time and unfortunately I’ll admit it is taking quite a little bit of time, but we need to do this to cross and have a sustainable economy to contain all the young men that we made the promise to”.

Intransigence

Meanwhile, Organiser of Delta Force, Hak-Musah Tasure, speaking on the same show said their action was the result of a failed promise.

He has since apologised over the incident on behalf of his colleagues.

This is not the first-time elements in the Delta Force have been in the news for the very bad reasons.

It may be recalled that the public was left stunned in 2017 when, the 13 Delta Force escaped from lawful custody, after eight of their colleagues sparked confusion in the court in protest of the Judge’s ruling that the 13 be remanded and not given bail.

After the judge’s decision, the members of the group said they were not going to allow the ruling to stand.

The 13 later reported themselves to the police where they were convicted for the attack on the Regional Security Coordinator and fined.

The eight members were accused of aiding the escape, and were charged for storming the court to release the 13.

But the charges were eventually dropped under controversial circumstances by the State for lack of evidence, an action many believe have emboldened the group in the latest attack.

By: The Publisher