Mr IGP, enough of the romantic promise made

The proliferation of political vigilante groups in the country and the flurry of violence unleashed on the citizenry by these groups have sent worrying signals about the government’s inability to deal with the miscreants once and for all.

Even more worrying is the inability of the police and the security agencies to deal with this growing canker.

The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr David Asante-Apeatu, is on record to have promised some time in February this year that the police would deal with people who engaged in any political-aberrant behaviour ruthlessly and that it was the last time the people would hear of those scoundrels.

We took his words as a bold step and good signal to nip the growing canker in the bud so we all went to sleep.

But alas, that promise was romanticised by some other state actors who felt that it had happened in the past before and so the security agencies should deal with the violent vigilante groups softly.

The disturbances by vigilante groups continue to be a menace because every government has failed to deal with them. A new government means a new vigilante group rising to make demands, and that of the old government going underground.

But the nation is pregnant with violence. And the activities of these groups could soon burst and catch us off-guard. They have become a national security concern.

The saying goes that, “There is a beast in every man and it stirs when you put a sword in his hand.’’ The young men recruited for vigilance during elections, now have the sword of power in their hands and they are unleashing terror with the least disagreement.

They have done almost everything inconceivable; inherited, broken and set new records of vigilante madness in our rather short history of vigilante activities by the two biggest political parties in the country, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Heavily built young men have since the “competitive” multi-party race been recruited and/or constituted themselves into groups directly and/or affiliated to the leading political parties.

The recent incident saw some irate youth at Karaga in the Northern Region invading a police station and freeing some NPP members who were in custody.

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has also publicly condemned the activities of these groups and has tasked the police to deal with them, but the IGP is on an unaccomplished mission, promising and setting new timelines to halt the ‘lunatics’ on the rampage.

It is for this reason that the Daily Graphic believes that the IGP has one too many failed promises and needs to sit up to make a mark.

This time, he has given another assurance and we want to take his word for it, but only for the last time and if he fails, we will be on his neck.

For us at the Daily Graphic, these attacks call for concern, especially when the country is surrounded by politically unstable countries that have become breeding grounds for indiscipline and violence.

It is, therefore, our view that the government got the military involved in dealing with acts of lawlessness by political vigilante groups.