‎Act 999: We Must Not Go Back Inside Ghana's Renewed Fight Against Vigilantism and Landguardism ‎

Seven years after Ghana criminalized political vigilante groups and land guards, the country's top security official has delivered a blunt warning: the threat has not disappeared it has simply learned to hide.

A law born of by-election bloodshed
The Vigilantism and Related Offences Act, 2019 (Act 999) was passed against the backdrop of violence at the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election of 31 January 2019, one of several episodes including flashpoints in Talensi, Akwatia, Amenfi West, Atiwa and Chereponi that exposed how deeply party-affiliated militias had embedded themselves in Ghana's electoral culture.

The Act defines vigilantism broadly as violence or intimidation carried out to further the interests of a political party, political office holder, landowner, real estate developer, public office holder, or mining interest, and it criminalizes the formation, organisation, recruitment, training, arming, financing and support of such groups.

On land guards specifically, the law is severe: organizing or facilitating a land guard operation carries a prison term of five to fifteen years, while acting as a land guard or knowingly engaging one carries a minimum of ten years.

"We must not mistake reduced visibility for complete eradication"

Speaking on Tuesday, 25 August 2026 at a National Policy Dialogue on the implementation of Act 999, organized by Election Watch Ghana at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra, National Security Coordinator COP Abdul-Osman Razak delivered the address that now leads Ghana's newspapers.

He told the gathering chaired by Chief of Staff Dr Julius Debrah and attended as Special Guest of Honour by National Chief Imam Sheikh Osman Nuhu Sharubutu that the open, uniformed vigilante groups of the past have largely gone underground rather than disappeared .

"We are very much aware that some groups are rebranding as internal security teams, volunteer task forces or community security initiatives," he said, adding that mobilisation has increasingly shifted onto "social media, encrypted chats, local disputes, private security arrangements or other informal channels".

His central warning was unambiguous: "We must not mistake reduced visibility of these groups as complete eradication. A vigilante group is a vigilante group regardless of its name, uniform or publicity".

Enforcement gaps admitted
COP Abdul-Osman Razak did not shy away from acknowledging the law's shortcomings in practice. He conceded that prosecutions under Act 999 have been limited and that some legal proceedings have taken longer than expected, warning that delays or selective application of the law risk undermining its deterrent power altogether.

He called for the Act to be enforced "consistently and without political considerations" a pointed remark given persistent criticism, echoed in Ghanaian legal and academic commentary, that weak enforcement rather than weak legislation has allowed land guard activity in particular to remain "lucrative" and largely unchecked in fast-growing urban areas.

Police operations do periodically demonstrate the law's teeth: in one notable case in July 2025, the Ghana Police Service's Anti-Landguard Unit arrested ten suspected land guards at Ashongman Estates in the Ga East District, charging them under Act 999 after residents had endured prolonged harassment and property destruction.

A timeline for staying ahead of the next election

Rather than treating vigilantism as a problem to be managed only once campaign season begins, the National Security Coordinator urged a long-lead approach.

He proposed that intelligence gathering, mapping of vigilante networks and stakeholder engagement should begin 12 to 18 months before any election; that youth engagement and civic education should follow at the nine-to-twelve-month mark; and that monitoring of political mobilisation should intensify from at least six months out. The rationale, he explained, is that recruitment and mobilisation into violent groups typically begins long before candidates start campaigning in earnest meaning security agencies that wait for visible signs of trouble are already reacting too late.

Why the warning matters now
Ghana's Fourth Republic has repeatedly demonstrated how quickly localized political violence often linked to land and chieftaincy disputes as much as party rivalry can escalate into a national security concern. Researchers studying landguardism note that the phenomenon persists not because the law is inadequate on paper, but because of systemic weaknesses: corruption, interference in law enforcement processes, an overburdened and complex land tenure system, and continuing public ambivalence in some quarters about whether the law is even necessary.

COP Abdul-Osman Razak's intervention this week is best read as an attempt to close that gap between legislative intent and enforcement reality before Ghana enters its next major election cycle a reminder that a law criminalizing violence on paper only protects citizens if it is applied with equal force to every group, regardless of political colour or the new name it has chosen to wear.

Mustapha Bature Sallama
Medical/Science communicator, Private Investigator, Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Analysis,United States Institute of Peace (USIP), mustysallama@gmail.com +233555275880

References
Full article, "Threat of political vigilantism to political security in Africa: a case of Ghana," Cogent Social Sciences. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311886.2024.2384184

ScienceDirect, "'Landguardism' in Ghana: Examining public perceptions." https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0264837721003537

National Peace Council Ghana, "Do You Know About The Vigilantism And Related Offences Act, 2019 (Act 999)?" https://www.peacecouncil.gov.gh/2020/03/do-you-know-about-act-999-vigilantism-and-related-offences-act-2019/

MyJoyOnline, "Election Watch Ghana to hold national dialogue on Vigilantism and Related Offences Act." https://www.myjoyonline.com/election-watch-ghana-to-hold-national-dialogue-on-vigilantism-and-related-offences-act/

Adomonline, "National Security raises alarm over rebranding of political vigilante groups," 25 August 2026. https://www.adomonline.com/national-security-raises-alarm-over-rebranding-of-political-vigilante-groups/

Graphic Online, "Weak law enforcement: Reason for 'lucrative' land guard activities." https://www.graphic.com.gh/features/opinion/ghana-news-weak-law-enforcement-reason-for-lucrative-land-guard-activities.html

Africa Continental Engineering & Construction Network, "Red Flags In Ghana's Property Market [Part 7]: Land Guards And Security Risks." https://www.acecnltd.com/red-flags-in-ghanas-property-market-part-7-land-guards-and-security-risks-when-land-ownership-comes-with-threats/

Ghana News Agency, "Court issues bench warrant for arrest of Landguard Commander." https://gna.org.gh/2025/07/court-issues-bench-warrant-for-arrest-of-landguard-commander/

GhanaWeb, "Residents hail police crackdown on land guards." https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/crime/Residents-hail-police-crackdown-on-land-guards-1990542

Sur International Journal on Human Rights, "Land Guards, State Subordination and Human Rights in Ghana." https://sur.conectas.org/en/land-guards-state-subordination-human-rights-ghana

ResearchGate, "An Island of peace in an ocean of turbulence? The case of Land Guards in Ghana." https://www.researchgate.net/publication/378862592_An_Island_of_peace_in_an_ocean_of_turbulence_The_case_of_Land_Guards_in_Ghana

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