Stop the presses, folks; there is more to the Delta 8 drama than meets the eye. The decision by the chief government lawyer in the Ashanti region to discharge the eight men, who in March reportedly barged into a courtroom, assaulted a sitting judge and freed eleven of their colleagues on the grounds of insufficient evidence is deeply troubling.
Predictably, the decision has sparked accusations of hypocrisy and favoritism from the opposition and concerned Ghanaians on one hand, and rigorous denials by the ruling NPP on the other. The issue is loaded, frankly, with political overtones and has the potential to explode in the face of those who encouraged and pushed for that awful decision.
Two prominent lawyers have weighed in with their views that were largely skewered in favor of the government. I was not in the least surprised by the legal musings of Martin Amidu and Ace Ankomah. The two are well known for their political leanings. In advancing their arguments they used a lot of legalese in the erroneous belief that the ordinary Ghanaian will digest and decipher their ambiguous legal language.
What Ghanaians saw in the release of the Delta 8 was the invisible hand of a government eager to save its skin. The NPP had a lot riding on the Delta 8 case. If the eight men were to go on trial and found guilty and subsequently thrown into jail for a lengthy period of time, the party will explode —- there was bound to be internal upheaval within its ranks, especially from its vigilante groups.
The activities of its vigilante groups —particularly Delta Force — since it regained power five months ago have stunned and confounded the party. It did not expect that and as much as it tried to rein in the groups, every effort has been a failure. Delta Force has become too powerful, due in large part to the protection it enjoys from two NPP power brokers.
As things go now, fear and panic have enveloped the party. It is at a loss as to how to avoid a confrontation with its own creation. And guess who rides to its rescue? The newly appointed Attorney General, whose office since the discharge of the eight men, has gone to great lengths to distance itself from the decision of the Ashanti Regional State Attorney.
Now that the kitchen is unbearably hot, the NPP is frantically trying to flee the heat. But Ghanaians are not buying the denials. Given the prominence and sensitivity of the Delta 8 case, how can the Attorney General be ignorant of whatever went on in the office of a subordinate — the Ashanti regional attorney general?
The NPP can’t run away from its close association with Delta Force and other vigilante groups. Cutting itself loose from the monsters it deliberately and intentionally created will be next to impossible. Whatever despicable acts the groups perpetuate against other Ghanaians ultimately reflect poorly on the NPP.
It should not have come to this; both the NPP and the NDC injected vigilantism into our political culture ostensibly to shore up their inherent security weaknesses. It is increasingly clear that the power of the vigilante groups has grown exponentially and as a consequence, they have become rude, defiant and a public nuisance.
Our country is slowly but steadily succumbing to mob rule. Witness the numerous occasions Delta Force visited its ugly brand of physical barbarity on unsuspecting Ghanaians. Theirs is a reactionary culture.
The two big parties are in a quandary; they are desperately searching for a way to curb the expanding influence of their vigilante groups. But the journey will be long and difficult.
