Accra, Aug. 26, GNA – Former Minister for National Security and veteran intelligence chief, Francis Kwaku Poku, has issued a stern warning to state authorities, asserting that legislative bans like Act 999 will never eliminate political vigilantism unless the government addresses land administration failures, slow judicial delivery, and systemic grievances driving Ghanaian youth into informal armed syndicates.
Speaking at the National Policy Dialogue organized by Election Watch Ghana at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), Mr Poku advocated a strategic dual response: systematically resolving underlying chieftaincy and land conflicts while mobilizing retired military, police, and intelligence personnel into a structured nationwide network to assist state security with ground-level intelligence gathering.
Reflecting on nearly six decades of state intelligence service since joining the Special Branch in 1967, Mr Poku cautioned against ignoring early intelligence indicators, recalling how unheeded warnings in the 1970s presaged national upheaval.
“In 1976, I personally submitted an intelligence report warning of growing instability, but it was ignored, and by 1979 we had the Rawlings coup, Mr Poku revealed. We are living with violence today because we refuse to fix the root causes. When citizens feel the courts are slow or biased, and when land ownership is governed by force rather than law, people naturally turn to vigilante groups for protection and enforcement”.
He emphasized that while Ghana had often relied on respected elder statesmen and religious leaders to de-escalate political tension during elections, national stability could not permanently depend on ad-hoc emergency mediation.
“To stay ahead of evolving vigilante tactics, land guard mobilization, and local crime, Mr. Poku called on government and state security command to systematically tap into the country’s vast reservoir of retired security personnel.
“We have experienced security officers on retirement across the country, Hon. Poku observed. We should encourage and support them in forming a structured organization where their expertise, local intelligence gathering, and investigative instincts can actively assist state agencies in solving criminal cases and neutralizing vigilante threats”.
He noted that leveraging veteran networks offers a proactive, cost-effective intelligence shield capable of detecting illegal recruitment drives and land guard formations long before they erupt into public violence.
Mr Poku urged state authorities and civil society to direct policy resources toward structural institutional reforms rather than relying solely on legislative prohibitions.
He stressed that strengthening land administration, expediting court trials, and restoring public trust in formal dispute resolution mechanisms remained the most viable long-term defenses against political militias and illegal enforcement outfits.
GNA
Edited by George-Ramsey Benamba
