Ending Political Vigilantism: Akufo-Addo’s thinking ‘too simplistic’ – Asiedu Nketia jabs

General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Johnson Asiedu Nketia has taken a swipe at the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, saying his thinking on political party vigilantism being curbed by only the country’s two major parties is too simplistic.

He said even the latest exposé on the activities of a quasi-militia group at the seat of government annex, the Christianborg Castle in Osu, “tells you that the president was acting out of insincerity”.

He wondered that if the NDC and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had met, for instance, and disbanded their militias, what would have happened to the likes of De-Eye Group “which the NPP is disowning?”

“Will it continue to exist or will it have been dissolved at the same time?”

Mr Asiedu Nketia was speaking in a telephone interview on TV3’s The Key Points on Saturday, March 9.

His observations come in the wake of the president asking only the two major political parties to engage each other to resolve the canker.

According to President Akufo-Addo, in his 62nd independence anniversary speech, the NDC and NPP have produced governments in the Fourth Republic and have controlled about 95 per cent of the voter population since 1992.

He added that even the current Parliament is made up of members of only the two parties.

But Mr Asiedu Nketia expressed disagreement, especially in the wake of the exposé by investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni.

De-Eye Group is said to be manned by one Nana Wireko Addo, said to be a former personal bodyguard of the president.

For Mr Asiedu Nketia, popularly called General Mosquito, it is “insincere” on the part of President Akufo-Addo to leave the dialogue on the phenomenon exclusively to the NDC and NPP when groups such as De-Eye Group are using state facilities to train perpetrators.



‘Tape is not credible’

The NDC General Secretary backed his chairman’s demand for the National Peace Council to serve as a mediator, a situation he says contradicts assertions on a leaked tape capturing the voice of Samuel Ofosu Ampofo.

The tape, which the NDC has described as doctored and even considering a legal action over, captures Mr Ofosu Ampofo calling for insults to be rained on the NPC Chairman, among other acts.

But Mr Asiedu Nketia said the demand of the NDC National Chairman in his letter to President Akufo-Addo and the content of the leaked tape “tells you that that tape is not incredible”.

Asked why the NDC 2020 flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, commented on the tape to justify the chairman’s words, the former MP said it was only to reply those believing in the tape.