The Director of Operations at the Ghana Police service, Chief Superintendent Dr Benjamin Agordzo, has warned that vigilante groups could plunge the nation into armed conflict, stressing on the need for collective responsibility to root it out.
“It is also our duty as police and as our collective responsibility, civil society much more to educate people on the consequences of not addressing this vigilante issue,” he said.
He continued: "We are talking about war in Serra Leone, we are talking about war in Côte d’Ivoire, we are talking about wars elsewhere, they did not just happen.
"They happened because people secretly armed themselves, people secretly trained, people secretly prepared and then there was a trigger and the trigger was carried forward. After the trigger, people who perpetrated the [violence] are people who were prepared.
“If you are not even prepared and then there is war, you can only run away. But when are prepared, you stand and fight. I am talking about this not for one political party but for all the political parties especially the two main political parties.
“And let me also say that if we fail to address this issue, it will cost us one day and it will even cost those who gave birth to do creatures and the consequences will be too much for all of us.”
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His comments came after weeks of violence acts being perpetrated by the Invincible Forces and the Delta Force, all aligned to the running New Patriotic Party.
There has been a public uproar about the conduct of these groups, with some security expert warning they could become terror groups.