A Deputy General Secretary of the governing New Patriotic Party, Nana Obiri Boahen, believes that the media has exaggerated the alleged attack on the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo Pankrono Constituency by the party’s affiliated vigilante group, Delta Force.
According to him, the issue is nothing serious to warrant the attention it is getting from the media.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Monday, Obiri Boahen said although he condemns the incident, he does not think it should be belabored.
“Let’ be very honest, and this is a very simple issue. Party constituency executives holding a meeting and party activities have misconducted themselves. We all condemn it unreservedly, but the press has blown it out of proportion creating the impression that that constituency and for that matter, members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) are lawless,” he said.
Some heavily-built men over the weekend stormed a meeting of constituency executives which was being chaired by the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo Pankrono Constituency, who doubles as Minister of state for Monitoring and Evaluation, Dr. Anthony Osei Akoto.
The men disrupted the meeting and allegedly wanted to abuse the Member of Parliament over failed election promises physically.
The Member of Parliament was however assisted to escape unhurt.
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Some organizations have called on the government to take a tough stance on the matter, but according to Nana Obiri Boahen, “the [party] structures are there” to deal with the persons believed to be behind the attack.
“They have misconducted themselves… I’m told the constituency executives have reported it to the regional executives, so the regional executives have taken up the matter,” he noted.
He, however, indicated that the membership of the suspects could not be exactly said to be Delta Force as “Delta Force as a registered private security company’s leadership have come out to deny that the members are members of Delta Force.”
“People are trying to create a bad image of invisible forces and delta force. They are not lawless,” he added.
Meanwhile, a deputy minister for the interior under the John Mahama administration, James Agalga, has described the incident as an unfortunate and called on the government to “show leadership” and crack down on the activities of the group.
“We admonished government to deal with this vigilante groups but they didn’t take heed… The vigilante group will compromise the security in this country in ways that will be dangerous to all of us. This development is very unfortunate, the government must show leadership and deal with the issue of vigilantism once and for all,” he told Umaru Sanda on Eyewitness News.
The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has also condemned the incident, describing the activities of such groups as a serious threat to the country’s peace and security.
Source: citinewsroom.com
