Former National Security Minister Francis Poku has called for the repeal of the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act, 2019 (Act 999), describing it as unenforceable and irrelevant from the start. He argued that the law, which was enacted as an immediate response to the violence during the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election, has failed to address the root causes of political violence and has largely been ignored by law enforcement agencies.
Mr. Poku made these remarks as a panel member at the National Policy Dialogue titled “Assessing the Implementation of the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act, 2019 (Act 999) and Its Implications for National Security and Democratic Governance.” This event was organized by Election Watch Ghana and took place at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) in Teshie, Greater Accra Region, last Tuesday. The dialogue gathered former security chiefs, academics, and governance experts to evaluate the impact of the law six years after its passage.
Unenforceability
Mr Poku said Act 999 was a hurried response to political vigilantism when the government had all the information it needed to act without resorting to a commission of inquiry and a new law. He said the law did not address the fundamental challenges that drove people to resort to vigilante groups, including the failure of constitutional organs of state. “Prospective land litigants are taking the law into their own hands because they have no redress in the courts.
Let’s look at the abuses of the interlocutory injunction system.
You want to develop land for farming, and an injunction is granted for five years.
It frustrates you.
That is why people are going for vigilantes,” Mr Poku said.
He said the provisions of Act 999, particularly the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years for forming or operating as a vigilante group and 15 to 25 years for the use of weapons, made it impossible to enforce.
“As someone who has been in the security agencies and in charge of investigations, I know these cases cannot be established with evidence that will secure a conviction. No law enforcement agency would try to enforce it,” he said.
Mr Poku suggested an expansion of L.I. 157 on Private Security Organisations to allow retired military and police officers to establish regulated private security firms to help deal with land guards and community security challenges, while relying on existing criminal laws under Act 29 and the Police Service Act to deal with the operations of violent groups.
Political influence
For his part, a security analyst, Col Festus B. Aboagye (retd), said the vigilantism problem existed because the state deliberately chose not to enforce already existing laws, and not because there were no laws.
“We have passed the law.
That’s the end of the story.
We only passed the law to tick a box, not intending that after the enactment, anybody who falls foul of the law would be dealt with,” he said. Col Aboagye highlighted the 2020 voter registration exercise and the 2020 general election as missed opportunities to address vigilantism, describing these events as the most violent since Ghana’s independence. He referenced incidents of shootings and the presence of unidentified armed men at registration and polling centres as clear evidence that Act 999 had no impact a year after its enactment.
Col Aboagye questioned why, from 2019 to 2026, the perpetrators of these acts had not been identified or prosecuted under Act 999. He noted that the police continued to charge suspects under the existing Criminal Offences Act instead of Act 999. He suggested that this lack of enforcement was due to an unwritten agreement between the two major political parties to protect their affiliates while in power.
