General News of Friday, 15 March 2019
Source: dailyguidenetwork.com
2019-03-15
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo yesterday ordered the Attorney-General to deal with vigilantism, the first such action to be taken against political violence in the country.
The action comes against the backdrop of questions raised by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) about the President’s sincerity in tackling the menace.
In a correspondence to the National Chairman of NDC, the President said, “I have, in line with my pronouncement to Parliament during the message on the State of the Nation on 21st February, 2019, instructed the Attorney General, without prejudice to the outcome of the engagement, if any, between the NPP and NDC, to prepare and submit to Parliament, as soon as possible, specific legislation to deal with the phenomenon of vigilantism and provide appropriate sanctions against its occurrence.’
“Such an enactment would provide sufficient space for any citizen to make an input or contribution to the enactment of a good and effective law whose implementation will enable us to rid our nation or politically-related violence,” he said.
The President has been engaged in the exchange of correspondences in the past few weeks on the subject of vigilantism with the opposition party.
However, both parties have disagreed on the modalities for engagement on the subject.
The President had earlier pointed at outright legislation as a way out of the issue.
Now he has gone the way of a legislation which is without prejudice to the proposed yet vexatious issue of whether or not to have other parties join the dialogue.
