President Nana Akufo-Addo
PRESIDENT Akufo-Addo has instructed the Attorney General (AG) to prepare and submit to Parliament a specific legislation to deal with the phenomenon of vigilantism and provide appropriate sanctions against its occurrence.
The president made this known in his letter to the National Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo.
In the letter dated March 14, 2019, President Akufo-Addo acknowledged his receipt of NDC’s recent letter to him dated March 11, 2019, on the vigilantism matter.
He said in his letter which DGN Online has in its possession that “secondly, since the constitutional responsibility of maintaining law and order in our country is that of the Executive I.e. the President of the Republic, I have, in line with my pronouncement to Parliament during the message on the State of the Nation on 21st February 2019, instructed the Attorney General without prejudice to the outcome of the engagement, if any, between the NPP and NDC, to prepare and submit to Parliament, as soon as possible, specific legislation to deal with the phenomenon of vigilantism, and provide appropriate sanctions against its occurrence.”
The president added in the letter that “I believe that the parliamentary process of enactment affords sufficient space for any citizen to make an input or contribution to the enactment of a good and effective law, whose implementation will enable us rid our nation of politically-related violence, a development that can only inure to the benefit of Ghanaian democracy and to the preservation of law and order.”
President Akufo-Addo asked the NPP and NDC during the State of the Nation Address (SoNA) to meet within a week after February 21, 2019, and dialogue on disbanding party vigilantism.
He had stated that failure on the parties to meet would compel him to pass a law to deal with vigilantism.
But both parties have not been able to meet since then.
BY Melvin Tarlue