Paul Adom Otchere traces vigilantism in Ghana to Rawlings

Paul Adom Otchere, Host of Good Evening Ghana on Metro TV has suggested that vigilantism in Ghana started with former President Jerry John Rawlings during his tenure as president with the formation of 64 infantry battalion.

According to him during his latter days as President, Mr Rawlings created the 64 infantry battalion thought to be a private army to protect his regime and himself and so created a lot difficulty among the ranks of the soldiers at the time.

“Where did all this start from, perhaps it started with this man, Flt Lieutenant Rawlings. When he was President of Ghana in the latter days there was a unit in the Ghana Armed Forces called the 64 infantry battalion thought to be a private army Mr Rawlings created to protect his regime and himself and so created a lot difficulty among the ranks of the soldiers and therefore people who were political opponents of Rawlings became worried about the excesses of the 64 Infantry Battalion. Also ACDRs and CDRs were set up right within the Ghana Armed Forces”, he disclosed during his show monitored by MyNewsGh.com.

He explained that Association of the Committee for the Defence of the Revolution (ACDR) were partisan in nature according to the politics of the current opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) which was born out of Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).

The seasoned journalist, however, noted that in 2001 when President John Agyekum Kufuor took over as Commander-In-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, he took steps to disband these ACDRS and CDRs in the Ghana Armed Forces as well as the 64 Infantry Battalion.

“64 Infantry Regiment was converted to now become a regular infantry regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces called the Rapid Response Unit and they were relocated to where they were to Burma Camp”, he disclosed.