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The disbandment of political party vigilante groups holds the key to ensuring peaceful Election 2020, Madam Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive has said.

She therefore called on Ghanaians to support the move to disband all forms of vigilante groups, as the December 7, general election gathers pace, to sustain and consolidate the gains of the nation’s fledgling democracy.

Madam Owusu-Banahene made the call when she addressed the opening session of a two-day workshop, organised by the National Peace Council (NPC)in Sunyani.

The workshop, being attended by leadership of the various political parties, security services and civil society organisations is aimed at sensitizing participants on the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act, 2019 (Act 999).

It will further expose participants to the Roadmap and Code of Conduct, which are the outcomes of almost a year’s dialogue between the NPC, New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

Madam Owusu-Banahene observed that unscrupulous activities of existing political party vigilante groups threatened the prevailing national peace, social cohesion and stability.

It behooves on Ghanaians to join hands to disband such vigilante groups in the supreme interest of the nation, the Sunyani MCE emphasised.

She called on the teeming youth not to be lured into such groups, and allow politicians to use them as tools to create unnecessary misunderstanding and tensions that could trigger political violence in the electioneering and mar the beauty of Ghana’s multi-party democracy.

Madam Owusu-Banahene lauded the NPC’s commitment towards recognizing the need for the nation to sustain and deepened her prevailing peace and stability.

The Reverend Canon Martin Amankwaa, Secretary to the Bono Regional Peace Council, underlined the importance to identify and tackle challenges that confronted previous elections.

He observed that extreme political tensions had the potential to fuel election violence and disturb national peace, hence the need to sensitize the populace to the Act 2019 (Act 999).

Rev. Canon Amankwaa indicated that challenges and acts of violence that confronted the new voter’s registration exercise placed a clarion call on all Ghanaians to help disband all forms of vigilante groups in the country.

Earlier in a welcoming address, Alhaji Suallah Abdallah Quandah, the Bono Regional Executive Secretary of the NPC, expressed the hope that the political parties would appreciate the need to be decorous in the electioneering for a peaceful Election 2020.