The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) Chairperson is unhappy with the form of punishment meted out to individuals who engage in acts of violence in the country.<\/p>\n
Describing it as \u201ca slap on the wrist\u201d, Josephine Nkrumah sai"},"modified":"2019-02-15T19:44:39","modified_gmt":"2019-02-15T19:44:39","slug":"vigilantism-sentencing-regime-not-deterrent-enough-ncce-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/02\/15\/vigilantism-sentencing-regime-not-deterrent-enough-ncce-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"Vigilantism: Sentencing regime not deterrent enough \u2013 NCCE boss"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) Chairperson is unhappy with the form of punishment meted out to individuals who engage in acts of violence in the country.<\/p>\n
Describing it as \u201ca slap on the wrist\u201d, Josephine Nkrumah said the sentencing regime is not severe for a country that wants to stem the tide of activities of vigilante groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can we increase the sentencing regime to make it detriment enough for perpetrators to understand that if you get yourself in this [vigilantism] there are strong sanctions?\u201d she said, advocating harsher punishments.<\/p>\n
The nation has recorded a string of violent activities carried out by vigilante groups since the victory of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) was announced in 2016.<\/p>\n
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But no one has been jailed for the many violent attacks despite assurances from the government and the police to make perpetrators account for their acts.<\/p>\n
The recent incident happened during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election on January 31, where some supporters of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) were attacked by men from the National Security.<\/p>\n
The NDC has hinted it would \u201cmatch the NPP boot-for-boot\u201d at the 2020 general elections, a development security experts have described as worrying.<\/p>\n
Ms Nkrumah believes the politicisation of the Ghana Police Service plays a major drawback, undermining efforts aimed at arresting the situation.<\/p>\n
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\u201c[We must] look at ways of insulating the police from political intrusion and infiltration [which] more or less immobilises them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The NCCE boss has entreated Ghanaians to delink activities of vigilante groups from politics, a solution she said would help to treat such acts \u201cas crimes properly so-called [which would be] firmly fixated in the domain of the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
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