The National Peace Council has said it has taken notice of the concerns raised by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) about a proposed peace accord to end political party vigilantism.

Chairman of the Council, Prof. Emmanuel Asante, said although NDC’s refusal to sign the peace accord the Council put together is unfortunate, the Council does not see it as a drawback.

“But with this development from the NDC, we will go back to the drawing table as a committee, put their inputs together, have it discussed and then see they will agree to it and append their signature,” he told Accra-based Peace FM.

The opposition party on Tuesday refused to sign the final roadmap and code of conduct document on the eradication of political vigilantism in the country.

Not even the Peace Council Chair’s plea for the party to sign the document changed the party’s position. A leading member of the party, Alex Segbefia, said not only is the ceremony to sign the document premature, but the absence of other stakeholders to append their signatures to the document is also worrying. Joy News’ Kwesi Parker-Wilson reported that at a short media briefing after the boycott, Mr Segbefia said, “we do not think we have exhausted all the possible issues that are required to have a meaningful document that we can all work to.” This, he explained, is because while the roadmap has 22 recommendations, only four those relate to political parties. The other 18 belong to others namely, government, National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Civil Service Organisations, Electoral Commission (EC) among others. Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishop Conference has vowed to campaign any against any political party that fails to sign the roadmap to deal with the threat of party vigilantism.

Secretary of the Catholic Bishop Conference, Rev. Lazarus Anane, told Joy News in an interview that the Conference has very strong support for this course to end party vigilantism and urged the parties to take the move seriously.

“Any party which does not demonstrate its commitment to ending this we will have no choice than to campaign against such parties. Because if we encourage this then we are not encouraging democracy,” he said.

Following the violence that marred the Ayawaso West Wuguon Constituency by-election, there were calls by the general public for a ban on political vigilantism and the use of militias by all political parties. This led to the introduction of a political vigilantism dialogue by the National Peace Council. Although the dialogue witnessed a shaky start with the two major political parties boycotting on some occasions and differing in views on several occasions, some agreement was reached. The Peace Council, together with the various stakeholders, finally released a 31-page road map that outlines short, medium and long term plans to eradicate political vigilantism from Ghana’s political dispensation. It is expected to take effect after the endorsement from the two major political parties, NDC and NPP.