The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has condemned government’s call for only the two parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to meet and agree on appropriate measures to nip political vigilantism in the bud.
According to the party, it was wrong for the President at the recent State of the Nation Address, to demand that only the NPP and the NDC sit and address political vigilantism.
This was contained in a press statement signed and issued by the party’s National Chairman, Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond, in Accra on Thursday.
“No competent criminal justice system in the world allows parties to a crime, to meet and settle the matter by themselves, we urge the police to take the criminal investigation into organised political violence seriously to bring all culprits to book through the criminal justice system.
“The PPP insists that the excessive and discretionary powers of the executive to appoint virtually all public officers in the country be toned down, but full time appointments of Minister of State In-Charge of Security and the National Security Coordinator, as heads of the national security apparatus is a waste of state resources.
“Arguments have been advanced within and without police circles that the appointment of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) by the President will always lead to control of the entire police service by non-government stakeholders in every election.
“We wish to reiterate the PPP’s recommendation that, the President, instead of appointing, should nominate the IGP from a two-thirds majority approval by Parliament for he or she to become the citizenry IGP and not the president.
“Advocacy must now be aimed at having leaders of sponsoring political parties held vicariously liable for any violence their hirelings unleash on Ghanaians, we must not allow political leaders who win elections through violence, to get away unpunished but have the outcomes of such elections annulled and the beneficiaries disqualified from the contest,” the statement said.
BY BERNARD BENGHAN
