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Former President John Mahama seems to have changed his stance on President Akufo-Addo's request for the two main political parties to meet to chart a path in ending vigilantism in the country.

A couple of weeks ago, President Akufo-Addo, while delivering his State of The Nation Address in Parliament, asked the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) to meet to find solutions to the canker of vigilantism that has bedeviled the nation.

He further asked his party; the NPP to extend an invitation to the NDC to discuss how to disband their respective vigilante groups, warning that "if they don't, he will initiate a legislation to deal with it."

However, speaking in an interview on Accra-based radio station, Radio Gold, the former President who was just elected flagbearer of the NDC was reported to have said the Akufo-Addo's plan is too 'simplistic' and that it will not work.

“I am happy he (President Akufo-Addo) is taking the initiative to try and resolve the matter but I think just asking the parties to meet and resolve it is not enough. There are several other stakeholders that must be brought on board. We have the Peace Council, security experts who all have to invited to the table to look at the phenomenon and what to do and how to deal with it. How are we going to delist the vigilantes who are embedded in the security service already? These are all questions that will bubble up and NDC and NPP on their own cannot resolve those issues". 

The structure he is suggesting won’t work. Just to tell NPP that invite your brothers NDC to come and sit and see how you can ban vigilantes is too simplistic. There should be a better structuring of this issue and there should be good faith….It will take other stakeholders like the Peace Council to disband this. NPP and NDC alone can’t dissolve it," Mr Mahama reportedly said.

But on Sunday, the former President, who had earlier described the proposed meeting as "too simplistic", while speaking at the Perez Chapel International, Accra said: "I can assure you that NDC is going to go into that conference (proposed meeting) in good faith and it’s going to give everything to make sure that the objectives of these discussions are upheld".

According to him, "NDC as a party will uphold the peace of this country. I can boldly assert that as leader of the NDC it will not be because of NDC that this country will burn, and that is why we have accepted the president’s invitation to discuss the issue of vigilantism and we actually have written explaining some of the issues we think we need to look at..."

Former President John Dramani Mahama led an entourage to Perez Chapel to thank God for a successful primary.

Watch the former President speak in the video below