The Minority in Parliament has described as “untenable, outrageous and very disturbing”, claims by the Interior Minister that government’s recruitment to the security services is to clear a backlog of applicants.
According to the Minority, there is no such backlog of applicants as government is claiming, adding that never in the history of the security services recruitment has there been such incident.
This comes after the Majority in Parliament dismissed claims by Members of Parliament belonging to the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that, their colleagues in the New Patriotic party (NPP) have been given 30 slots each together with their parliamentary candidates to be recruited to the security services.
Addressing the media in Parliament Wednesday, May 22, 2024, Minority Leader, Dr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, indicated that the Ghana Police Service has clarified in a 2023 statement that it had completed its 2021/22 enlistment.
He also dared the Interior Minister to provide the list of NDC MPs he claims submitted names to them, to include in the secret recruitment.
“This issue is serious and deserves a substantive response, not a deflection. We therefore challenge the Minister for the Interior to publish the names of persons that he claims were forwarded by the NDC MPs for the secret recruitment. If the Minister fails to provide these names, then his statement must be seen for what they are, baseless, ridiculous, frivolous, provocative and indeed false.
“The Minister’s announcement that there is going to be a recruitment this year without public advertisement and the sale of forms because the government want to clear the backlog of previous recruitment is untenable, outrageous and very disturbing,” he said.
The Ajumako Enyan Essiam MP questioned “since when did the government of Ghana block recruitment into the security services by restricting access for only a selected group in the name of backlog? This is because there is no such backlog and I repeat, there is no such backlog.
“Indeed, on the 7th of July 2023, the Public Affairs Directorate of the Police Headquarters issued a press release signed by Assistant Commissioner of Police Grace Ansah Akrofi under the heading ‘Police Conclude its 2021-2022 Recruitment Exercise’ and there’s a copy of the letter from the Ghana Police Service, a copy of the letter and the letter is only two paragraphs and I read, “The Ghana Police Service bring to an end its 2021-2022 recruitment process with an invitation to the last batch of successful candidates to report for medical screening and training.”
Minority to file a motion to demand an inquiry into recruitment into security services
