The African Electoral Institute (AEI), a Civil Society Organization has attributed activities of vigilantism in the country’s political landscape to mistrust in the electoral processes.
Speaking in an interview on Breakfast News on Dreamz FM, Public Relations Officer of AEI Augustus Kweku Eshun said political actors find it necessary to raise and keep militia if they suspect fowl play in the elections.
Kweku Eshun believes the country can only eradicate activities of party militia if it commits to free, fair and transparent elections.
“When you create that suspicion, that is when people decide that ‘no, we need to put something (vigilante group) in place’. I know that officially people would say it has been disbanded but in their own corner, they have their own groups that are there to check and make these things are well,” he stated.
“I think all we need to do is work on the suspicion. If people do not have suspicion that there is going to be arm twisting, I’m sure these groups will die out on their own”.
He was speaking on the back of allegations of operations of a vigilante group in the Chiana-Paga Constituency.
The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Constituency, at a press conference over the weekend, accused the parliamentary candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for the area of recruiting and maintaining a vigilante group comprised of foreign nationals, who are terrorising his opponents in the Constituency.
The group known as ‘Save Ghana’, the NPP claimed, has members who are Burkinabe national and they fear it could be a conduit for a spill over of insurgent activities from the Sahel region.
They, thus, called on the security agencies to take appropriate action against the group and its activities as they believe its existence threatens the peace and security of the area and Ghana at large.
But the candidate Nikyema Billa Alamzy dismissed the allegations, stating that the group neither has political affiliation nor members whoa re foreign nationals.
