The governing New Patriotic Party has distanced itself from the group which has been captured undergoing what has been described as militia training at the Osu Castle.
In a statement, the party said “The NPP has watched with keen interest the news commentary put together by journalist Manasseh Azure and aired on the Joy News Channel in the evening of 7 March, 2019. Whilst any effort at helping rid the country of politically related violence is welcome and is to be commended, the NPP wishes to state UNEQUIVOCALLY FOR THE RECORDS that it has no connection to the purported group shown in the documentary.
“The NPP has not established any such group and is neither affiliated to nor supports one.
However, it is significant that in seeking to make a point about militias or vigilantes, the news commentary makes obvious and extensive resort to footage from the ongoing public inquest into the violence related events of the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election. Nowhere in the footage shown is the subject persons or specific identified group seen or connected to any violent activities”.
Meanwhile, government has described the documentary as malicious.
According to Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the documentary is nothing but “disingenuous and deliberate attempts to cast President Akufo-Addo in a negative light vis-à-vis the fight against vigilantism.
He said: “In line with the president’s commitment to disband party vigilante groups and their activities, the government will continue to support any effort that’s aimed at ending this worrying phenomenon.
“Unfortunately, however, the Joy News documentary, the work of Manasseh Azuri Awuni, carried a number of significant misrepresentations and misleading impressions.”
“The promotion of the documentary and the narrative of the documentary stated emphatically that a militia, that’s a military force raised from the civil population to supplement the regular army in an emergency have been uncovered training and operating at a security zone with the complicity of the current administration and identified as belonging to the New Patriotic Party.
“Surprisingly the twenty minutes documentary does not show any evidence of such a militia, or a vigilante group training or operating at a security zone. Rather, it shows a group of young men and women dressed up in white shirts and black suits converging at the Christiansburg Castle in Osu in the belief that jobs will be found for them,” he told the News Conference.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
