SONA 2019: Vigilante Groups To Face Forceful Disbandment After Next Week

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has called on his party and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to as a matter of urgency voluntarily disband all vigilante groups in the country latest by next week.

He said both parties must engage in a dialogue on possible ways to completely flush them out.

Delivering his 3rd State of the Nation Address in Parliament, President Nana Addo said failure to do so will force him to pass a legislation that will compel both parties to disband those groups.

"I want to use this platform to make a sincere appeal to the leaders of the two main political parties in our country, NPP and NDC to come together as soon as possible, probably next week, and agree on appropriate measures to bring an end to this worrying and unacceptable phenomenon of vigilantism in our body politics," he said.

President Nana Addo added that production in the economy, as measured by real GDP growth, has picked up very strongly in the last two years; from 3.4% in 2016, real GDP growth increased to 8.1% in 2017.

"We all now agreed that the fundamentals have to be sound if the economy is to flourish; we have just concluded a programme with the IMF, and, with continuing discipline, we shall sign off from the deal in April.This is the seventeenth time Ghana has had to go to the IMF in the sixty-years of her independence," he intimated.

According to him, inflation has dropped from 15.4%, at the end of 2016, to 9% in January this year, the lowest in six years as announced by the Ghana Statistical Service last week.

The President said in order to reinforce and support the process of reconciliation and the restoration of the peace in Dagbon, he has decided that this year, the 62nd Independence Day celebration will be held in Tamale, on 6th March.

"This will be the first time in our nation's history that the celebration is being held outside of our national capital of Accra, I am very much , looking forward to it," he opined.

President Nana Addo noted that two years ago he decided to summon all the resources of the state and made a concerted effort through the dedicated, patriotic Committee of Eminent Chiefs that had been working on the problem for the past 17 years, to find an acceptable solution to the Dagbon protracted chieftaincy issues.

"With the blessings of the Almighty, we have had a breakthrough, and this led to the month-long series of events that climaxed in the installation on the 25th January, 2019," he emphasised.

According to him, the Minister for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs intends to use the momentum of the Dagbon settlement to tackle the protracted Chieftaincy disputes in the country, hopefully, for resolution.