Parliament passes anti-vigilante bill

The Vigilantism and Related Offences Bill 2019 has been passed by Parliament into an Act.

The bill was passed by the House after it went through the various stages of reading in the House.
Deputy Attorney General Joseph Kpemka who was in the House expressed his satisfaction over the passage of the bill.
The Minority in Parliament had raised concerns over the bill.

According to them, the bill in its current form fails to tackle the root cause of vigilantism in Ghana.

“The bill as presently presented appears to lack conceptual clarity,” Minority spokesperson on legal affairs Inusah Fuseini said while addressing a stakeholder conference on the bill in Parliament.

Asking rhetorically, “what are we dealing with? What is the problem?”, he said more detailed legislation is needed to deal with the menace.
The vigilantism and other related offences bill was laid before Parliament in April for consideration and approval by the House.
The bill when passed into an Act will disband activities of vigilantism and prohibit the formation of such groups.

It would be recalled President Akufo-Addo vowed to use legislation to address political vigilantism if the two main political parties fail to resolve it through dialogue in the aftermath of the bloody Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election.

Six people were shot at the Baweleshie polling centre of the constituency during the election, compelling the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to withdraw from the exercise citing safety concerns.

Voters were electing a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the area in the by-election necessitated by the demise of the incumbent Emmanuel Kyeremanteng Agyarko last year, representing the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).