Stakeholders call for end to vigilantism ahead of 2020 elections

Stakeholders at a public forum on the Vigilantism Bill have emphasized the need to tackle vigilantism to ensure peace during and after the 2020 general election.

The forum cautioned the nation not to live under the illusion that there had been peace in previous elections, stressing that vigilantism was gradually becoming a canker in the nation’s political environment.

Citing the recent vigilante events that marred the Ayawaso West Wuogon Parliamentary Bye-election, and others in the Talensi, Chereponi, Atiwa, Akwatia and Amenfi West constituencies in the recent past, as well as the terrorist threats in neighbouring Burkina Faso, the forum called for all hands on deck to prevent the problem from growing wider.

The forum, organised by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, held at the Parliament House, was to solicit stakeholders’ view on the Vigilantism and Related Offences Bill, 2019, for which the House was recalled during the vacation for an emergency sitting, but which consideration was deferred for further consultations.

The stakeholders’ conference comes ahead of the resumption of the House, next Tuesday, May 28, 2019.

The object of the Bill is to disband political party vigilante groups and proscribe acts of vigilantism in the country.

Vigilantism has been defined as the act of taking the law into one’s own hands and attempting to enact justice according to one’s own understanding of right and wrong.

It is seen as action taken by a voluntary association of persons who organise themselves for the purpose of protecting a common interest such as liberty, property, or personal security.

It is also “action taken by an individual or group to protest existing law; action taken by an individual or group to enforce a higher law than that enacted by society’s designated law-making institutions; private enforcement of legal norms in the absence of an established, reliable, and effective law enforcement body.”

Political vigilantism has gained currency in Ghana in recent times, especially in the wake of political activities before, during and after elections and has become a security threat, for which President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, last February, made a declaration to end that phenomenon.

Ms Gloria Akufo, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, on April 11, 2019 laid before Parliament the Bill, expected to be treated under Certificate of Urgency to deal with political party vigilantism and its notoriety in Ghana.

Prof. Aaron Michael Oquaye, the Speaker of Parliament, referred it to the Committee on Constitutional Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to determine whether it was of urgent nature or not, but the Committee reported that the Bill, despite its urgent nature, still had to go through consultations for more thorough work on it.

At a stakeholders’ engagement speakers from Academia, Civil Society Groups, the National Peace Council, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), political parties, and media, among others, made their cases for strong and concerted efforts to deal with the growing canker of vigilantism.

Ms Josephine Nkrumah, the Chairperson of the NCCE, said the recent terrorist attacks in neigbouring Burkina Fast was a strong signal to deal with vigilantism, since vigilantism got support from terrorism.

She said political parties that sponsored or engaged in vigilantism should be banned from taking part in elections.

Ms Nkrumah identified growing youth unemployment as a cause of vigilantism, adding that body building groups have become sources for recruiting political vigilantes.

She called on the national security apparatus to effectively check the influx of small and

Source: citifmonline.com