Happenings in Ghana with respect to instant justice indicate that the act has become a cultural practice among Ghanaians, Kwame Jantuah, a member of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), has said.

According to him, several persons have suffered mob action on suspicion of being thieves or armed robbers.

His comments follow the lynching of Captain Maxwell Mahama by an angry mob at Denkyira Obuasi in the Central Region on suspicion that he was an armed robber on Monday 29 May when a group of women he bought snails from while jogging spotted a pistol on him.

Commenting on the development on TV3’s New Day on Saturday June 3, Mr Jantuah said: “For me, this is not a new thing. When I say it is not a new thing, in the early days of independence when you had the so-called CPP Veranda Boys and you had the so-called UP Action Troopers, these things were going on.

“People were doing all sorts of things in the name of politics... It is a bit difficult to say but it looks as if it is a cultural thing. We turn to love outsiders but not ourselves, and so at any little drop of the heart we want to take the laws into our own hands. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to make the laws we have work.

“We have a huge challenge with people having confidence in the Police, we have a huge challenge of people understanding what the laws are, we have a huge challenge of not being able to prosecute when we arrest people for crimes that they have committed.

“We were in this country when parcels of cocaine got missing just like that and so far nothing has happened.”