John Mahama surrounded by machomen during his ER tour
Former President and opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential Candidate, John Dramani Mahama, has made a bizarre claim that the NPP government is arming people to engage in armed robbery without any proof.
He said specifically that the government has given state weapons meant for the security agencies to armed robbers and emphasised that the resources meant to be spent on buying uniforms for the security personnel are diverted and rather used to buy uniforms for vigilantes.
The former president during a campaign tour of the Eastern Region made the unsubstantiated claims when addressing the party supporters at Koforidua Prisons Park in the New Juaben North Constituency on Thursday evening.
Mr. Mahama said there is increasing rate of armed robbery-related incidents because weapons meant to be given to police officers to operate are being distributed to people he termed as ‘NPP vigilantes’.
He said that instead of the government providing the needed tools for the security agencies to effectively perform their duties, it has rather channelled resources to the vigilantes who are engaged in unlawful deeds.
NPP Commitment
When the NPP administration took office in 2017, the Ghana Police Service of about 30,000 personnel had only 458 serviceable vehicles. The NPP government, within three years has added an additional 676 vehicles to the service as part of measures to retool and reorganise the service.
They are also making plans to purchase three helicopters for the Ghana Police for the first time in the history of the service, to fight crime.
Vigilantism Bill
In July 2019, Parliament passed the Vigilantism and Related Offences Bill, 2019 after it was introduced earlier in the year by the government through the Attorney General to criminalise the activities of vigilante groups in the country as part of the NPP’s commitment to fight vigilantism.
First consideration of the bill came to an end on Friday, July 5, 2019 but some other crucial amendments were also considered later during the second consideration stage before it was finally passed unanimously by the House.
President Akufo-Addo gave a strong indication during his State of the Nation address in 2019 that he would bring a vigilantism bill to Parliament to fight the phenomenon of political vigilantism groups in the country after violence erupted during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election on January 29, 2019.
The new law also criminalises the activities of land guards in the country as well, and offenders are liable to 15 years imprisonment and a huge fine as specified.
NDC Objection
Interestingly, when the bill was introduced before the House, the same NDC which is being led by Mr. Mahama initially objected to the vigilantism bill brought to Parliament under certificate of urgency.
Parliament then said there was the need to have further stakeholders’ consultations and engagements to be able to come out with a bill that would stand the test of time.
After the stakeholders’ consultations, the bill was finally subjected to consideration in Parliament, going through first and second consideration stages before its final passage.
Mahama’s Hypocrisy
In spite of the commitment shown by the Akufo-Addo government to nip vigilante activities in the bud, Mr. Mahama whose administration did nothing at all about the menace, has turned around to accuse the government without any proof when in fact, he and his party leaders are those moving around with vigilantes on their campaign programmes.
“We are all witnesses to the terrible security situation in the country presently. Of late, armed robbers don’t fear our security personnel anymore. They block main roads and rob people at gun-point because they are fearless,” he said to create the impression that it was the first time armed robbers are striking in the country.
He said, “Instead of guns being given to our security personnel to protect us, they’ve rather been given to vigilantes. The monies to be spent on buying uniforms for our security personnel are diverted and rather used to buy uniforms for vigilantes, while our Prisons, Immigration, and Fire Service Officers lack uniforms.”
The Former President continued that “If you ask our police officers they’ll tell you that for one year they’ve not received a uniform allocation. You sometimes meet a policeman with a faded uniform parading our streets. How on earth will anybody fear such a policeman? When I’m voted into power, I’ll ensure that what needed to be done for our security personnel is done.”
Security Recruitment
Earlier, Mr. Mahama said on Starr FM whilst concluding his tour of Greater Accra that the NPP is recruiting members of its vigilante groups – Delta Forces and Invisible Forces into the National Security.
According to him, most of these vigilantes before they were recruited were known armed robbers which make them unfit to work in such a sensitive security agency.
He was the President between 2012 and 2016 but could not order the arrest of these so-called armed robbers he claims were known to the system.
He said, “…I’m saying that the Delta Forces and Invisible Forces lived with our people in the communities. We know some of them were dishonourable characters, today we see those same people with National Security IDs carrying weapons and all that.
“I’m saying that we knew that they used to be armed robbers when they were in our communities and they were carrying out robberies and other things.”
He added “And so now that they are in the security services, they work normally as security personnel during the weekdays and what do they do as their part-time job at the weekends, we don’t know. There have been robberies where ID cards have been found linked with the National Security and Jubilee House. So we can safely say that some of the vigilante characters are involved in dishonourable activities.”
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Koforidua