Militia groups: Sammy Awuku calls for disbandment

The National Organizer of the NPP, Sammy Awuku has led a team of top delegation of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to address the issue of militia groups in northern Ghana to halt political vigilantism.

The weekend tour started in the Upper regions through to North East to Savannah and ended with a nightfall press conference in Northern regional capital, Tamale.

His tour follows calls by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for both the NPP and the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to disband their militia groups, failure of which he will do so himself through legislation.

Speaking to the media in Tamale, Mr Awuku urged the leadership of the NDC to heed Nana Akufo-Addo’s call to meet the NPP to discuss disbanding the groups without preconditions.

He said: “We believe that the NDC must also do its part to come to the table without any conditions and let us also help our youth. And again, also embark on a mission of bringing down this pressure, bringing down this tension and also help our nation get out of this unfortunate situation.”

Mr Awuku assured Ghanaians that the NPP will continue to engage its youths to stay away from violence. “Yesterday, we had the opportunity of engaging members and the leadership of Kandahar, we also had the privilege of meeting the members and leaders of the Invincible Forces; we did same in the Upper East where we engaged members of The Rock and same in the Upper West region. And our gentlemen and our men, they also see reason with Mr President and see reason with the NPP leadership and they have also resolved not to be the aggressors, they have also resolved to cooperate with party leadership so that we can eliminate politically-motivated violence.”

He called on youth groups to use available structures to address their concerns regardless of the level of provocation.

Background

A video report by Joy FM’s Manasseh Azure Awuni showed some young men and women being allegedly trained as security operatives within the Osu Castle.

The Deputy Minority Leader, James Avedzi at a press conference on the matter said there must be an explanation as to how a security installation such as the Osu Castle became a safe haven for such a group.

He also called for the resignation of the president over the issue.

“We demand that an investigation into how a facility owned and managed by the state, Osu Castle became a safe haven for an NPP militia. [We also demand] that the state should take urgent steps to reclaim the officers and other state properties in possession of the leaders of De-Eye militia group as a matter of prime importance,” he said.

The government subsequently rubbished the documentary and laughed off the Minority’s demand