All eyes are on President Akuffo Addo; in the wake of the latest outrageous behavior of the NPP affiliated vigilante group, Delta Force, Ghanaians are waiting with bated breath to see what their leader has up his sleeve.
The lingering question remains: will Mr. Addo finally lay down the law, condemn the actions of Delta Force and once and for all, announce the disbanding of politically connected vigilante groups before a national TV and radio audience?
Or will he capitulate to the likes of Ken Agyepong and Wontumi and in the process allow Delta Force and other related groups to continue their mercenary ways of intimidating and bullying Ghanaians?
Mr. Addo has a binary choice here: either he chooses chaos and social upheaval by going along with his “boys” or he elects to stand with Ghanaians who crave peace and stability.
The group’s misguided adventures have been a complete turn off, repugnant to Ghanaians who are complaining loud and clear to authorities that something ought to be done about the vigilante groups and quickly.
Delta Force latest scrape with the law —-ransacking a court room, freeing prisoners, destroying public property and scaring the life of a judge —is ample testimony of its recalcitrance and open defiance of authority, no matter the source.
The group has shown time and time again that it is ruthless, lawless and hell bent on disrupting the political and social order that the nation has painstakingly built over almost three decades.
Delta Force latest outrage should be, I would assume, the final nail in its coffin, but are we going to see the government act authoritatively and put Delta Force and other vigilante groups out of business for the good of the nation? I have my doubts.
Mr. Addo’s eerie silence, his lack of concrete action, has been very disturbing; the president has the authority invested in him by our constitution to put Delta Force and other vigilante groups in the ice, that is, effectively neutralizing the groups altogether.
However, why he has failed to date to act decisively leaves many wondering what he has to hide. In fact, the dithering, despite overwhelming evidence of bad behavior by Delta Force clear emboldens it and other like minded groups to grossly misbehave.t
The president cannot say with a straight face that he is not aware of the illegal activities of Delta Force— in fact, he has acknowledged the group’s existence in the past.
There is no iota of doubt that the vigilante groups are taking advantage of the president’s lax attitude to intimidate Ghanaians and perpetuate terror.
The onus falls on the president to arrest a situation that is clearly spiraling out of control; no one else has the power to do so.
Now is the time for the president to demonstrate much needed leadership on a matter crucial to national security.
This is my personal plea to the president; “Mr. Addo,, go on radio and television and announce to the whole country you have declared Delta Force and other political vigilante groups illegal organizations and you are therefore banning them with immediate effect.” That will be sweet music to the ears of millions of Ghanaians.
It is now or never; the vigilante groups are a threat to democracy and by extension to the social fabric. If they are not collared and put to pasture, the entire nation would someday pay a huge price.
I agree with you perfectly on your current write – up. But to start with I want to state emphatically that until the police force in our country more especially the Ministry of interior, Ministry of defence and national security ( BNI) are not controlled from the presidency we will continue to live with this vigilantes. The president met the Ashanti Hene in Kumasi and the Ashanti king told him to bring those vigilantes to book the following three days another groups in Koforidua went and sack the regional health insurance officer from office and locked it up. What a shame. The bigger attacks are coming soon when the president begin to mention the mmdce’s.
I now see why the NPP said if they don’t win the elections in 2016 the country will be ungovernable. They have well trained vigilantes in all the ten regions in the country ready to strike if they were to lose the elections. A friend of mine told me before the 2016 elections that if they (NPP) don’t win then Ghana will be there without a president and no court case.
If you have an MP like Kennedy Agyapong daring the national security coordinator and the president to act on Delta Force and forget about 2020 elections . God save us. Amen.