Interior Minister Henry Quartey has dismissed claims by the Minority that government is covertly recruiting party foot soldiers into the security services.
He says though the security services are recruiting, they are not selling forms because people have purchased forms the previous years and couldn’t be enlisted into the services.
He has explained that the backlog of applicants is what the services want to clear, a process they will soon come out with the modalities for the entire public to know.
His comments come on the back of allegations by the Minority that the government was covertly recruiting party foot soldiers into the security services with each Member of Parliament in the Majority given 30 slots.
The caucus had alleged that the recruitment was for purposes of the 2024 polls.
Dr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, the Minority Leader who addressed the media Monday, May 20, 2024, noted that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was ready to resist any unauthorised action by the persons they have described as thugs in uniform.
But the Interior Minister, Henry Quartey, has said the government is not involved in such activities, terming the allegations are regrettable. He explained that government was going to inform the public and everything was going to be done in the open should recruitment begin.
He says the intention is to clear the backlog of recruits from previous years, which is why there has been no advertisement. However, he mentioned that the agencies will soon disclose the eligibility criteria for the recruits.
“It is rather unfortunate that MPs and of course a leader, Minority Leader and a former deputy minister of Interior could actually spew this falsehood into the public. MPs currently are about 137…it cannot be possible, it is not and it cannot be possible. I am rather disappointed in this approach…Yes, we are recruiting but it is not a secret recruitment. We haven’t even started. The agencies are going to send the eligibility criteria. I am sure by this week they will do that.”
“What we are saying rather is that look in the last couple of years people have gone to buy forms. And for some reasons, they could not gain admission into the security and intelligence agencies. So we thought it wise that we don’t have to advertise anymore for people to continuously pay monies because you have a certain number of people that per the clearance you have to recruit.
“But I want to say on authority and I want to say again on authority that giving 30 slots to MPs is false. It is not true. It has never happened before and I am surprised that they want to go on this tangent,” he said on Accra-based Citi FM Monday, May 20, 2024.
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