October 8, 2018//-Members of Delta Force, a political vigilante group affiliated to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) have chased Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, the Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation at a constituency event held in Kumasi in the Ashanti regional capital of Ghana.
Dr Akoto Osei who has been described as one of the finest ministers in the current government is also the Member of Parliament for Tafo-Pankrono Constituency of the Ashanti Region.
There was confusion in the constituency when some youth believed to be members of the New Patriotic Party’s private security force, Delta Force, were prevented from confronting the Member of Parliament for the area, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei.
Dr. Akoto Osei who is also the Minister for Monitoring and Evaluation, has been accused by the Delta Force members in his constituency of neglect and failed promises of securing them jobs prior to the 2016 general elections.
The Tafo-Pankrono legislator who was in the constituency to meet some party executives had to escape what could have been an attack on him by the irate Delta Force members.
Delta Force Chairman, Jafar Saeed, narrated what transpired to Citi News.
“During the elections the MP promised us jobs but two years after the party came to office, the MP no longer picks our calls. Two years into the NPP’s reign, there is no single youth here that the NPP executives or the MP have been able to help to get jobs. There are rumours that our MP wants the downfall of the President. Every MP makes time to meet with his or her constituents, but our MP has been to the constituency once. Even when he came, he did not come to see us. That is why we also did what we did,” he said.
Another member of the group also had similar concerns of neglect.
“We helped the party to come to power. We will plead that with the remaining two years of the NPP governent, they should help us the youth of Tafo-Pankrono to get jobs. That is all we are asking for and if that is done, we will follow the party forever. We have suffered enough. As I speak with you, my wife accused me of following Akufo-Addo yet I have nothing to show so she took my kids and fled. So if the party is in power and we have been promised of jobs, we are only asking for that promise to be fulfilled.”
Delta Force were not after MP – NPP
Meanwhile, the leadership of the party in the constituency said the Delta Force team members were not after the MP.
“I want to state that indeed some faceless people came to cause mayhem and disturbed our meeting with our MP Hon. Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, but the target was not on our Honorable Member of Parliament but some of our Constituency executive members,” a statement signed by the NPP’s Communication Officer for Tafo Pankrono constituency, Moah Gregory stated.
The statement further condemned the act by the Delta Force team describing it as “unwarranted and reckless”
“We therefore call all our executives of the constituency and the entire NPP fraternity in the country to remain calm as the executives are meeting to bring a lasting solution to it,” the statement added.
National crisis
The National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) has challenged the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) to demonstrate its commitment to the rule of law by causing the arrest of members of the vigilante group, Delta Force, following a near attack on a Minister.
Chairperson of the Commission, Josephine Nkrumah said the criminal activities of the group, which is affiliated to the governing party, have reached national crisis levels.
Previous attacks
In March last year, more than 200 members of Delta Force attacked the Ashanti Regional Security Coordinator and physically hounded him out of office.
The group claimed at the time that it cannot work with George Agyei because he was not part of the struggle to wrestle power from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) during the December 2016 general elections.
The group has been vocal in their resistance of the appointment of George Agyei and had insisted that a party person ought to occupy the post.
In June of last year too, Delta Force members also set free suspects and members of Force who were facing prosecution for acts of vandalism.
The attack captured on video showed how the group, numbering about 50, besieged the Kumasi Circuit court premises, in chants and taunts, broke into the court cells and freed their members who had only weeks ago chased out the Regional Security Coordinator appointed by the president.
In that attack, State Prosecutors discontinued the case because it failed to gather evidence to prosecute the members of the vigilante group who stormed the court house.
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