The Acting General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) John Boadu has justified the creation of vigilante groups affiliated to the party.
According to him, such groups will continue to exist to protect members of the party and party facilities.
His admission follows an afro barometer report released by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) which revealed that majority of Ghanaians hated the activities of such groups.
Institutions such as the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) have called called on political parties to ban vigilante groups within their parties, to ensure that riotous activities by these groups that threaten the security of the state and breakdown of law and order, peace and security in the country is avoided.
Delta Force, a vigilante group affiliated to the NPP in 2017 stormed the offices of the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council to forcefully eject the Regional Security Advisor and also attack a circuit court to free its members who were being tried after the attack.
But speaking to Bola Ray on Starr Chat, John Boadu who’s the NPP’s substantive National Organizer said these groups are necessary, he however condemned the unlawful acts perpetrated by some of them.
“In times of peace people think that they must not prepare for war, it is rather in times of peace that you should always prepare. I’m giving you the background of what we found ourselves, to the extent that our headquarters was vandalized all our resources, our materials were destroyed. We must protect ourselves, we must make sure that at least our properties and persons are protected. It is for that reason that we have young men who help in protecting us and I’ll support them any day. That’s not to say that they must take the law into their own hands, no, they must work within the law. They exist, they’ll continue to exist.”