The Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin has debunked claims that talks between the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the ruling New Patriotic Party(NPP) will no longer hold with President Akufo-Addo's instruction to the Attorney General (AG) to prepare a legislation against vigilantism.
He said the Attorney General, as part of the legislation, is expected to provide the necessary sanctions against the occurrence of party vigilantism.
President Akufo-Addo made this known in a response to another open letter written to him by the Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Samuel Ofosu Ampofo. Click to read
“Since the constitutional responsibility of maintaining law and order in our country is that of the Executive, ie. the President of the Republic, I have in line with my pronouncement to Parliament during the Message of the State of the Nation on 21st February, 2019 instructed the Attorney General, without prejudice to the outcome of the engagement, in any, between the NPP and the 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.”
“I believe that the parliamentary process of enactment affords 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 rid our nation of politically-related violence, a development that can only inure to the benefit of Ghanaian democracy and to the preservation of law and order,” he said.
In an interview on Citi Eyewitness news, Eugene Arhin reiterated the President's directive will not prejudice the expected dialogue between the NDC and the NPP as far as the issue of vigilantism is concerned.
"The President has not given up on voluntary disbandment of vigilantes (by the parties) . . . in his own letter he made it clear . . . he’s not given up on that aspect . . .but as President of the Republic who is bound by the constitution to make sure that lives and properties are protected, he believes these two (legislation and dialogue) should go hand in hand to solve this matter once and for all . . . at the end of the day, we are trying to find a solution to the problem," he opined.
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