Stay away from self-defense groups, Kofi Abotsi advises NPP, NDC

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As the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress prepare to engage in a dialogue to end the activities of loyal defense groups, former Commission Secretary Emile Short wants both sides to recognize that groups constitute a danger to the country's democracy.

According to Ernest Kofi Abotsi, there is no "strategic advantage" for the two main parties to form vigilant groups, whether in power or in opposition, as they have been counterproductive.

"Having these groups … you weaken your own leadership claim because the Constitution has made it clear that no one should create a state entity," Abotsi told Evans Mensah on Monday during a press conference. on the Joy Express TV magazine.

He went on to say, "So, if you're in power, it goes against the logic that you're setting up a self-defense group given all the strength of the state you have behind you and whether you are not in power, the one who has the power to sue you for putting this in place. "

decision

The former dean of GIMPA Law School therefore wants the NPP and the NDC to be decisive in disbadociating themselves from these groups in order to bring common sense back into the political space.

"I think that to go forward, it is necessary to take a step back from the two leaders [political] The parties we have in Ghana have apparently admitted, on some level, either openly or tacitly, that they benefited from the use of these self-defense groups.

"I think we have to take into account or recognize that these groups are counterproductive, whether they are in power or not," he said.

Admissions and refusals

Despite the refusal of the two main political parties, the NPP and the NDC, to own these groups, some key activists admitted that they had benefited from their activities.

Former Vice-Minister of the Ashanti Region and Opposition NEC Leader Joseph Yamin openly admitted funding for the Hawks group's activities to provide protection to party members in the region. Ashanti.

NPP Secretary General John Buadu, who testified at the Commission's hearings on the violence that characterized the January 31st by-election in Ayawaso West Wuogon, also said he was a beneficiary of a self-defense group.

According to Mr. Buadu, this became necessary after state security failed to rescue him while his life was in danger during a political event.

As part of efforts to dissolve these groups, President Nana Akufo-Addo created the three-member Inquiry Commission into the violence in the by-election that tainted the groups. election.

The Commission was headed by former President of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Judge Francie Emile Short, while Prof. Henrietta Mensa Bonsu and the former IGP P.K Acheampong were members.

The Commission, among other things, gave a one-month deadline to "investigate any matter that it considers to be accidental or reasonably related to the causes of the events, as well as to the violence and trauma that it causes." result, "completed its work and submitted its report to the President.

AWWC Legacy

Refusing to comment on the details of the Commission's report that has not yet been made public, Mr. Abotsi said that this reflected in many ways what Ghanaians had seen during live broadcasts of the Commission hearing. the Commission on radio and television.

"What the commissioners did was collect the evidence, examine it … and put it together in a story that can be summarized for the purposes of the coming reform," he told Evans Mensah.

A key legacy in setting up the commission, he noted, is the demonstration of the president's determination and desire to address some of the challenges facing the country's governance paradigm.

"If the Commission leaves an important legacy, it is an important intervention in Ghana's political arrangement, constitutional arrangement and security arrangements so that, in the future, we can consolidate our democracy." -he declares.

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