Ghana is edging close to a state of lawlessness - Kwesi Pratt

Kwesi Pratt Jnr

Kwesi Pratt Jnr, Managing Editor, Insight newspaper, says the flash points that have occurred in the past few weeks are leaning the country towards a banana republic, that is a politically unstable country.

In less than a month, pockets of clashes have been recorded in distinct parts of the country sparking fears over the security agencies' readiness to handle the upcoming general elections in December.

So far clashes have been recorded at Nakpaduri in the Northern Region, Kpassa, in the Volta Region, Ekumfi Narkwa, Central Region and the latest being Hohoe also in the Volta Region.

Kwesi Pratt was speaking on Friday's edition of Peace FM's Kokrokoo morning show.

He bemoaned what he called a “gangster” mentality where group of persons rally around perpetrators of violence rather than allowing the law to deal with them.

These recent clashes have taken the form of communal, ethnic undertones, with some being sparked off as a result of a chieftaincy disputes and in the case of Nankpaduri, a land dispute between Bemobas and Kokombas.

He was speaking with particular reference to the Hohoe clashes where the indigenes of the Volta Region clashed with the Muslim community following the exhumation of a body buried by the latter.

According to him, the trend whereby people hide behind political parties, ethnic groups among others to foment trouble is steadily driving the state into a total anarchy.

He called on the security agencies to muster enough courage and arrest miscreants who have made it their habit to create confusion and hide behind political parties, ethnic groups and so on.

The Deputy Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party, John Boadu chastised the NDC over what he says were their politicization of disputes that erupted during the NPP's regime.

According to him, people who are now preaching that the current clashes should not be politicized have lost track of what transpired during the NPP's 8-year rule.

He condemned what he said were deliberate inciting of sections of the people against specific political parties with the aim of gaining electoral advantage.

He particularly singled out Ama Benyiwa Doe, Central Regional Minister for condemnation for attributing Ekumfi Narkwa's ethnic clashes to ethnocentric comments Kennedy Agyapong made early this year.