Security analyst, Prof Kwesi Aning, has said although political parties have said vigilante groups affiliated to them have been disbanded, new ones are springing up across the country.
The Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs & Research at Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) told GhanaWeb on Tuesday, August 11, 2020, that unless law enforcement agencies take firm action, events that led to the Ayawaso West Wuogon Commission and the subsequent promulgation of the Vigilantism Bill will recur.
“On my travels around this country, I am discovering new vigilante groups whose roles in their communities are respected and accepted although, at the same time, people perceive them as having the potential to threaten the stability that we are enjoying,” he said.
He was speaking to GhanaWeb about Ghana’s security situation with four months to the December polls.
According to him, the violence that characterised the 38-day mass voters registration exercise point to “difficult” times ahead for Ghana.
The Electoral Commission’s process to compile a new electoral roll ahead of the general election in December met with sporadic violence.
The 38-day registration exercise and two days of mop-up witnessed two deaths with several acts of violence across the country.
A clash between supporters of the two largest political parties in the country on August 8, 2020, led to the death of one person at Nkrankwanta, a town in the Bono Region.
Member of Parliament for Awutu Senya East, Mavis Hawa Koomson, also fired shots at a polling station disrupting the process.
Again in the Bono Region, a 28-year-old teacher who graduated from college was stabbed to death at Banda, a border town in the region in what is suspected to be a mistaken identity.
Commenting on these events, Prof Aning said the violence that marred the largely successful voters registration is not surprising.
“Actually, it is something that I have expected for quite some time now. In terms of the spread of the violence, the intensity of the violence itself, the use of small arms and weapons their easy availability but also disturbingly are the discourses or the language used so blatantly that now for most people they cannot differentiate between decent, acceptable societal behaviour and what is indecent undignified language.
“Violence, the threat of the use of violence and positive spin-offs that arise from using violence have become acceptable parts of our daily lives,” Prof Aning, who is also the Clinical Professor of Peacekeeping Practice at Kennesaw State University, Atlanta, told GhanaWeb.
Ghanaians go to the polls on December 7, 2020, to elect a new President and 275 parliamentarians for the eighth time.
Incumbent, President Nana Akufo-Addo defeated John Mahama in 2016. The 2020 polls will largely between the same candidates.
The stakes in the polls are quite high and analysts say violence that characterised the mass registration exercise point to dangerous times ahead.
Prof Kwesi Aning is a Security Expert