Parties admonished to prove wrong inability to disband vigilantism …But NDC skeptical of success

The Chairman of the National Peace Council, Right Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante, has admonished the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and stakeholders, to prove to critics they are capable of championing the agenda of disbanding all forms of party militia.

He stressed on the importance to stir out palpable actions that would combat the menace, as its failure would be a huge disappointment since the international community and the citizenry have expectations of what had been done so far; reason to find ways of ridding politics of vigilante groups to prove critics wrong.

Rev. Prof. Asante, who addressed stakeholders at a meeting held in Peduase in the Eastern Region, noted that, “Let me remind us we cannot afford to fail mother Ghana and its people, I humbly appeal to you, lets continue with the momentum, we all win what we started on April 9, Ghanaians and the international community are waiting patiently to see what we will be able to do because there are those who doubt whether we will be able to come up with anything, let’s prove our critics wrong.”

He asked the two political parties to present input within two weeks which would be inculcated in the roadmap on eradication of political vigilantism with reports submitted by stakeholders.

But the NDC is skeptical over success of the dialogue due to postponement of adoption of roadmap drawn by the Peace Council to help end the canker, which both parties have been given two weeks to draft the document and make recommendations for onward adoption, however, alleged it was not involved in preparation of the draft roadmap.

Addressing the press after the fourth session of the dialogue series, General Secretary of NDC, Asiedu Nketia, said excerpts of roadmap vindicate the party’s position on dialogue and insisted, “This is a big problem which needs engagement of stakeholders who have role to play eliminating vigilantism.

“Two political parties alone cannot eliminate vigilantism, it needs everybody on board, if we are able to determine it is the work of the police which hasn’t gone down well, the canker is not being addressed, police leadership needs to commit to doing their work better, you draw roadmap for implementation, how can we be sitting down and draw roadmap for issues we don’t have control over,” Mr Nketia fumed. -ghanaweb.com/citinewsroom.com