Senior Vice President of Imani Africa, Kofi Bentil, has said both the NDC and NPP are guilty of engaging party thugs during elections.

He said instead of faulting the governing NPP over allegations that it presented party footsoldiers to be trained at the Asuatuare military training facility, the two main political parties must be held responsible for the practice.

On Newsfile, a current affairs programme on Joy FM and MultiTv, on Saturday, Mr Bentil said the solution to ending party vigilantism could be obtained from the findings of the Emile Short Commission on the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election saga.

He said, “by law and as articulated at the Short Commission for every election there should be no other irregular force, whether uniformed or not except the Ghana police and Ghana army present.”

He warned against training political party vigilantes because they could be the same people who would destroy the nation.

“These are the same people who destabilise nations and both parties are guilty. The evidence is there that in trying to secure themselves against each other, both parties have compromised the security of this country,” he said.

“Evidence is the name of the game if you see somebody being trained and you say this person is a party operative, bring me the pictures, bring me the names, and give me the evidence and I think it warrants an official response,” he added.

However, he insisted that should national security wish to employ party operatives, recruits must understand that they are no longer party operatives but rather under a new separate entity: national security.

He believes this attitude would only be achievable if that recruitment process is extremely objective and “very proper.”

"And if any evidence shows wrongdoing, for example, that the people who have been trained have been given arms, then their employers should be tracked down and dealt with," he said.