Why NDC National Vice-Chairman charged youth to attack NPP members

Incitement and hate speech are conducts the representatives of the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party signed on to prevent when they signed on to the road map to disband party vigilante groups. 

However, the Second National Vice-Chairman of the NDC, Chief Sofo Azorka, has been caught on tape rallying youth of the party to attack persons collecting data on the party’s supporters in their communities in the Savannah Region.

“If you see anybody holding this book and going around collecting people’s names and ID card, master don’t let him go free, finish am… they are not Electoral Commission,” he said

In a video circulating on social media, Chief Azorka is seen holding a book and charging a group of young men to finish anyone they see collecting names and voter ID numbers of residents.

“If you see am, you do what?” he said, while the cloud chanted, “finish am” in response.

Accusations & counter accusations

But reacting to the video, Malik Basintale, the NDC Savannah Regional Communication Officer who captured the video said ‘finish am did not mean kill them, but end the process”.

According to him, they had picked up intelligence that some NPP members were collecting the details of registered voters under the guise of being officials from the Electoral Commission.

“We found out that the NPP was hiding behind the Electoral Commission to collect details of registered voters in the Savannah Region … the book you see him holding is the NPP Nasara document we intercepted after we search the people who were taking the information”.

“So they go there with a normal book, they take your details, they snap your voter ID and when they return home, they key in whatever information they have gotten into the NPP Nasara book” adding that when they intercepted the group they(the group) told them (NDC)  that they were from the EC “ to collect backup information so we quickly called the EC regional boss and he said he didn’t know anything about them”.

Malik Basintale believes the NPP has plans to use the data to delete names of targeted members of the NDC from the new Voters Register in the region.

In a sharp rebuttal, the NPP National Nasara Coordinator, Aziz Futa, confirmed the presence of NPP members in the region but dismissed claims that they were there to collect details of voters for impish reasons.

READ: Savannah NPP Nasara Declares Agenda 7 Seats In 2020

“This is a lie and I’m very disappointed in Sofo Azorka and his NDC. How can I do that? Do I have the power to do that? Even the President of the republic has no power over the EC how much more me a Nasara Coordinator of the NPP? There is no way, and they [NDC] are aware,” Haruna Futa said.

According to him, the exercise was been done nationwide “I was amazed when I heard the claims, this exercise is not only in Savannah region, it is done in the whole Ghana…as the Nasara wing of the party we represent the settlers in our party and my sole mandate is to propagate the good work of Akufo-Addo to them”

“But how do I do this if I do not know the settlers in our party…so this exercise is a data collection book which the NDC has the same so this shouldn’t be an offence” he insisted.

Vigilante groups 

The second National Vice-Chairman of the National Democratic Congress, Chief Azorka is known for forming the Azorka Boys.

The ‘Azorka boys’ a group of heavily built young men associated with the NDC identify him as their leader and founder. The NDC has indicated that the group is no longer in existence.

The group together with the NPP’s Delta Forces, Bolga Bulldogs, Invisible forces are identified as vigilante groups associated with violence during elections.

Vigilante groups were barred in Ghanaian politics after the violence at the Ayawaso West Wougon by-elections in January 2018.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in September last year assented to the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act, 2019, which bans acts of vigilantism in Ghana, disbands vigilante groups, including political party vigilante groups and land guards.

According to the law “a person who directly or indirectly instigates or solicits the activity of a vigilante, facilitates or encourages vigilantism, or conceals a vigilante to avoid lawful arrest, commits an offence, and is liable, on conviction, to a term of imprisonment of not less than ten (10) years and not more than fifteen (15) years.”

Both the NDC and NPP have signed the road map initiated by the Peace Council, which outlines a detailed Code of Conduct and roadmap to ensure that parties are devoid of any affiliated militia groups.