By William
Yaw Owusu
Wednesday
September 05, 2018
It’s becoming clear that the opposition National
Democratic Congress (NDC) is busily forming vigilante groups for the 2020
general elections.
According to sources, the groups are also being
armed to form militia for the 2020 polls.
Heavily built men, known in local parlance as ‘Macho
men,’ have been recruited for groups which have been given various names such
as ‘Hawks’, ‘Dragons’ and ‘Lions’.
The groups were on display across the country during
the just-ended Regional Delegates’ Congress of the NDC.
The vigilante groups appear to have different names,
depending on the region they come from.
In the Ashanti Region, for instance, the group is
called ‘The Hawks’ while in Brong Ahafo, they are called “The Dragons.’
In the Eastern Region, they call themselves ‘The
Lions.’
The Hawks were on duty when former President John
Mahama led the NDC ‘Unity Walk’ in the Ashanti Region.
These groups carried out their duties during the
congress, and a source told DAILY GUIDE that the NDC is using
them to test the grounds ahead of the 2020 election.
During the NDC’s Eastern Regional Congress held at
Apegusu Senior High School in the Asuogyaman District, members of the vigilante
group ‘The Lions’ were there to provide security.
They particularly provided security for John Owusu
Amankrah, popularly known as Jowak, a businessman and former regional chairman
who staged a comeback to defeat the incumbent Bismarck Tawiah Boateng for the
position of Chairman.
At
the Sunyani Jubilee Park when issues of missing names
in the register were detected by some of the delegates and there was confusion,
members of ‘The Dragons’ rushed to the stage to prevent some disgruntled
delegates from moving to the dais to lodge complaints with the election
committee.
At the Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School (SHS),
where the NDC Ashanti held its congress, former deputy minister Joseph Yamin
stormed the venue with ‘The Hawks’ and later justified their presence.
“What went into my defeat is something that I can
tell. I am not sure we are trying to conclude that vigilantism in political
parties should be discarded. These are people we call taskforce and they have a
role to play,” he told Joy FM.
He said “delegates play their role, taskforces play
their role. Council of elders has its role. These are groupings within every
political party and so we will continue to have our taskforce,” he stressed.
According to him, members of the hawks are not as
disruptive as members of the vigilante groups in the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
“We are going to use them for the good of the party
and the country,” he said.
‘The Hawks’ appeared to have been ‘outdoored’ when
the NDC held its so-called Unity Walk in Kumasi in late April when former
President John Mahama was in attendance.
They have since been moving around the country
presumably to provide security for the party during ‘Unity Walks’ or special events
of the party.
Currently, members of ‘The Hawks’ provide security
at the NDC’s Headquarters at Adabraka anytime there is a big event there.
After the Unity Walk in Kumasi, some NDC gurus in
the Ashanti Region like Afrifa Yamoah Ponkoh justified the formation of ‘The
Hawks’ by saying that it was an ‘answer’ to the Invincible and Delta Forces of
the ruling NPP.
"If they have Invincible Forces, we also have
The Hawks, and so we will see,” the former Ejisu/Juabeng Municipal Chief
Executive (MCE) said.
He stressed that ‘The Hawks’ of the NDC would not
foment any trouble in the country as compared to the NPP’s ‘Invincible Forces’ or
‘Delta Forces’.
In spite of the presence of the ‘The Hawks’ in
Kumasi, the NDC General Secretary Johnson Asiedu-Nketia said he did not know about
the existence of such groups in the NDC.
"We, in
the NDC, want peace in the country; we will not foment any trouble in the
country,” he said after the ‘Unity Walk’.
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