[ 2017-04-20 ]

Kofi Bentil, Vice President of Policy Think Tank, IMANI Ghana

Ghana’s security intact - Kofi Bentil
The security of Ghana has not broken down,
although there have been pockets of violence in
the country perpetrated by some vigilante groups
affiliated to the governing New Patriotic Party
(NPP) and other miscreants, Kofi Bentil, Vice
President of IMANI Ghana, has said.

According to him, the actions of members of the
Delta Force, a private security arm within the
NPP, cannot be said to have brought Ghana’s
security to its knees.

The group on March 24 attacked the Ashanti
Regional Security Coordinator, George Agyei, and
bundled him out of his office, saying he was not
native to the region and did not partake in the
2016 electoral campaign that brought the NPP to
power. 13 members of the group were arrested and
put before court on assault-related charges and
were remanded in custody only for some of their
colleagues to attack the court and aid their
escape from police custody.

At a press conference on Tuesday April 18,
Minority MPs of the main opposition National
Democratic Congress (NDC) said that the security
of this country was threatened under President
Akufo-Addo on the back of such happenings which
they likened to activities of Nigerian terror
group Boko Haram.

NDC National Chairman Kofi Portuphy also said the
country’s image had been dented given the
impunity with which the two groups operate.

He warned: “The real danger in not dealing
swiftly and ruthlessly with insipid domestic
political terrorism is that it can easily grow
uncontrollably into armed terrorism of
international proportion.”

But assessing the first 100 days of the president
while speaking to GHOne television on Tuesday
April 18, Mr Bentil said: “Our view is that
generally speaking the government is on track.
There are a number of things that we would have
expected would have more effects, for instance
reducing the cost of energy for the average
person. But it is our view that generally speaking
the government is on track.

“There are certain things that have happened,
for instance security breaches which I think are
important. But we must take them in context. We
should not think that because of that particular
occurrence the whole security system is in
shambles. We think that if the government
continues in this fashion, it is likely that it
will achieve most of its promises.

“The 100 days is not enough time to judge
anything. It is just enough time to give
indicators. Indicators will just give you a
certain sense of how well something is going to
move, so based on that alone we can say that what
we have seen is more positive and we think that if
they continue like this they are likely to achieve
most of their promises.”

Source - classfmonline.com

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