President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has made a new commitment to fighting the incidence of violence and political party vigilantism across the country.
Describing them as “criminals” the president said he will do everything in his power to stem the tide of political violence by party youth in the country.
Speaking to the President of the National House of Chiefs, Togbe Afede XIV, yesterday the president said he would be “walking another path” to finding a solution to the canker.
The country has been inundated with acts of violence by political party youth affiliated to the governing New Patriotic Party. Even though there were acts of political party violence under the previous administration, the situation got worse with the coming into power of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The youth have taken a path of violence in seeking a portion of the national cake.
In their haste to seek non-existent jobs, the youth have attacked several state institutions including the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), School Feeding Secretariat and the National Health Insurance Authority.
They have chased out officers of the state appointed by the previous government as well those new appointees whose appointment they disagree with.
In a height of political impunity, members of the Invincible Forces broke into the offices of the Ashanti Region Security apparatus and bundled out the regional security coordinator who had been appointed by the president.
They claimed the appointee, Mr George Adjei, played no role during the elections to bring the NPP to power.
In the wake of the attack on the security coordinator, suspects were arrested by the police and subjected to criminal prosecutions.
In a record-breaking act of political impunity, the members of the Invincible Forces broke into the court verbally assaulted the judge, freed the suspects and made nonsense of the entire justice delivery system.
Even though the original suspects who attacked the security coordinator and who escaped from the custody of the court were rearrested, the Attorney General had to file a nolle prosequoi on the case involving the court invasion because she did not have the evidence to proceed with the prosecution.
As if that was not enough, there have been several other attacks on individuals by members of the vigilante groups loyal to the NPP.