Former President Jerry John Rawlings says the need for community vigilantism is “an absolute necessity” and “an absolute must”.
To him, vigilantes protecting the environment, for instance, can help prevent random and persistent dumping of refuse on the streets.
Mr Rawlings said the vigilantes will, therefore, complement the efforts of security agencies.
He recommended that even before lawbreakers are handed to state security agencies, they have be “disciplined”.
He, however, stressed that nobody supports thugs who parade as vigilantes like it is happening in the political circles.
The former president was speaking at the Annual Thanksgiving Service of Zoomlion and the JOSPONG Group of Companies in Accra on Friday.
The service was under the theme: “The Lord has Done Great Things for Us – Psam 126:3”
“No one supports thuggery parading as vigilantes, however the need for community vigilantes to protect the environment is an absolute necessity and absolute must,” he remarked.
“I think before the security agency gets there, I think you people should have disciplined the person, you should have disciplined him well before you hand him over.”
Chairman of the JOSPONG Group of Companies, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyapong recalled the challenges he went through when he started the waste management firm, Zoomlion, and expressed profound gratitude to the current and former presidents of Ghana for their encouragement which urged him on.
Zoomlion now employs over 200,000 people with presence in Angola, Zambia, Sierra Leone and Togo, he noted, and called on the state to support private companies to grow.
Chairman of the Church of Pentecost, Apostle Eric Nyamekye in a sermon admonished Ghanaians, especially those in leadership to develop the habit of sacrificing for the future.
Concentrating his message on the need for all to sow in tears and reap in joy, he warned that Ghana’s future would be destroyed by the present generation if greed takes over the ambition for a better Ghana.
The thanksgiving service was attended by ministers of state, Members of Parliament, chiefs, religious leaders among others
