The New Patriotic Party has stated that it does not recognize any vigilante group within its fold called the Bamba Boys. Hence, the party wonders why the Institute of Economic Affairs insists it must disband the group.

The call, to disband groups such as the Azoka and Bamba Boys, was contained in a communiqué issued by stakeholders including the Electoral Commission (EC), the police and civil society at the end of a seminar on the 2012 polls.

The seminar, organized by the Institute for Economic Studies (IEA), tasked political parties not to exploit the media and unemployed youth to foment trouble in the country.

Political parties were also urged to avoid tribalism and any form of hate speech in their electioneering campaign and also to educate their members throughout the country on the 2012 political parties’ code of conduct.

The EC was asked to vigorously educate voters on the biometric registration process to ensure a credible voters register.

Both the EC and the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) were tasked to step up education efforts to reduce the number of rejected ballots as witnessed in the 2008 elections.

The police and the other security agencies were urged to be on the lookout for individuals or groups of persons who take advantage of the social media to post inflammatory comments, videos and other forms of materials that have the potential of destabilizing the peace of the country.

For the media, stakeholders agreed that they must stop the political dichotomization of issues of national concern and asked those particularly with political affiliation to desist from using their platforms to indulge in unlawful conduct and provocative behaviours.

Although the NDC is yet to comment on the call to disband the Azoka Boys, the NPP's General Secretary, Lawyer Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie also known as Sir John, challenged the call. He told XYZ News, the NPP has never had any vigilante group.

“Both officially or unofficially, we don’t have that. Well, I am not privy to that. We are not a violent party and therefore we don’t expect to have any such groupings in our party...the view of the IEA on the vigilante groups could be the result of the usual propaganda by the NDC...I have had occasion on several fora to debunk that notion that we have Bamba Boys in our party. We don’t,” he said.