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Member of Parliament (MP) for Jomoro Constituency in the Western Region, Paul Essien, has described the numerous letters by the largest opposition NDC party, asking that third parties including Civil Society Groups, ECOWAS, AU and others be invited into their meeting with the NPP to disband vigilante groups as a ploy to win the heart of Ghanaians.

Speaking on UTV’s ‘Adekye Nsroma’ programme, Paul Essien advised members of the NDC to have patience and attend the first meeting out of which they can pour out their hearts if the need be.

“Why should the NDC read a lot of meanings into the meeting yet to be held? They are now showing government what to do and how to go about the meeting to disband the vigilante groups, when they did nothing about it while in government,” he furiously said.

According to him the NDC’s much talk on the disbandment of vigilante groups is just one of their ploy to win the heart of Ghanaians as they always do.

To him, actions taken by the NDC towards the dialogue shows they are not ready and have never taught of disbanding their vigilante groups due to their selfish interest and violent behaviour.

“All I will have to tell them is to find a professional way of winning the heart of Ghanaians . . . and not through this childish means of writing letters,” he emphasized.

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has announced that it will not partake in the President’s proposed bipartisan dialogue to stem political vigilantism in the country.

The veiled announcement was contained in its second correspondence to the President on the subject – an obvious response to his earlier one to the party’s embattled National Chairman, Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo.

In the correspondence, President Akufo-Addo told Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo that the issue should be restricted to the NDC and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), with no foreign arbiter.

In what is appearing to be an endless exchange of open correspondences between the President and the NDC National Chairman on the vigilantism talks, the opposition party said “it would be a tragedy to go forward on the narrow basis of only the two major political parties considering the gravity of the matters to be considered and the danger that the threat of unregulated use of force by unauthorized armed groups poses to civil society, and indeed to those who bear arms lawfully as mandated by the 1992 4th Republican Constitution of which you are the principal guardian.”