James Oppong-Boanuh
The Deputy Inspector General of Police (IGP), James Oppong-Boanuh, has called for severe punishment for persons who engage in all manner of vigilantism in the country in order to discourage them.
Speaking at the dialogue yesterday at Peduase Lodge, near Aburi in the Eastern Region on vigilantism organised by the Peace Council for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) and other stakeholders, the deputy IGP said the canker had been encouraged for far too long because laws which were supposed to deal with the situation were lenient.
He said there were different types of vigilantism being practised in Ghana.
Apart from political and economic vigilantes, he said there are religious vigilantes in addition to bodyguards who are employed by certain groups and persons to serve their parochial interests.
The Parliamentary select committee on Constitutional and Legal and Parliamentary Affairs is working on the Vigilantism and other Related Offences Bill 2019 and it is the expectation of most Ghanaians that the Bill would be endorsed because it is currently being considered under a certificate of urgency.
He described people who move from one hotel to another in search of adulterous partners and fornicators as ‘religious’ vigilantes and termed land guards as economic vigilantes.
The police chief added that land guards would stop at nothing to get their mission accomplished and that their activities pose a threat to peace in the country.
The Deputy IGP hinted that economic vigilantes who engage in land guard activities in the daytime also embark on robbery operations at night, adding that they are eventually used as macho men during election periods.
The Justice Emile Short Commission, which was tasked by President Akufo-Addo to investigate the violence that characterized the by-election at Ayawaso West Wuogon, has since submitted its report.