Internal party corruption worse than vigilantism – Ossei Aidoo

Abraham Ossei Aidoo, a former Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, has cautioned that fixation on vigilantism as a challenge for democracy is unrealistic, rather internal party corruption is worse than vigilantism coupled with impunity.

“The groups are in the parties, but not owned by them because of impunity which shows how we just vandalise the law, following the issues, you will realise the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) have denied owning vigilante groups, but they exist,” he noted.

Mr Aidoo was commenting on the recent phenomenon of party vigilantism which escalated out of hand during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.

According to him, the vigilante groups are the products of individuals with questionable motives who have put the dangerous militia groups together and absorbed them as extensions of the parties.

“The existence of the groups in parties signifies the extent to which we have veered off from the core principles of democracy; these vigilantes exist and work at the pleasure of their paymasters for money and not out of conviction in political philosophies of the parties.

 “The discussion about the dangers to our democracy should not be fixated on political vigilantism which is an offshoot of the root cause of the challenge, internal party corruption and impunity, which attracted negative flak for the country,” Mr Aidoo bemoaned.

 Mr Aidoo raised concerns about attention paid to symptoms of the challenge militating against democratic dispensation, while the main causal factor was ignored saying, “It is not only vigilantism that is a result of internal party corruption and impunity but monitisation, violence, mistrust and lack of development. –GNA