Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has accused government of recruiting persons affiliated to the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) into the various security agencies on the blind side of the Ghanaian people.
This “secret and clandestine recruitment” into the Ghana Armed Forces, the Ghana Police and Immigration Services, if not nibbed in the bud, Mr Iddrisu feared, would injure the neutrality of the security services in the future.
Addressing the media in Parliament, Accra, yesterday, the Tamale South MP indicated that the recruits in question were as many as 1,600.
“In respect of the Ghana Police Service, the last time the public witnessed a public advert in accordance with the Constitution and the Public Services requirement and regulation was in 2017.
“So we are asking a fundamental question: how come that in 2018, 2019 and 2020, there is no official public recruitment advertisement serving notice to Ghanaian citizens to prepare themselves for recruitment into these important agencies?”
Without indicating where the military drills were being held, Haruna Iddrisu said the training for police recruits were underway at the Police Training Schools at Tesano here in Accra and Pwalugu in the Upper East Region.
“This is not an acceptable public service practice. The Constitution requires that there shall be no discrimination on the basis of gender, geography, region, ethnicity and or religion.
“The idea of a public notice allows every eligible legitimate Ghanaian citizen desirous of joining the security agencies to apply and to go through a rigorous process of recruitment into the security agencies,” he said.
According to the Minority Leader, the alleged recruitment underway raises fundamental question of efforts to politicise the security services by enlisting persons belonging to a “certain political party.
“That is an affront to the constitutional provision of non-discrimination and that can undermine the unity and cohesion of our country,” he said.
Mr Iddrisu warned that a future NDC government would audit the number of security persons it would meet because per the budget, the Minority was aware of how many persons were legitimately recruited into the service.
“Any addition will be subjected to thorough audit and investigation by us when we constitute government,” he said.
Noting that some of the persons allegedly under training now may be qualified to be listed into the service, due process ought to have been followed in engaging them.
“Some may have been qualified except that due process has been ignored by the political administration of Akufo-Addo to serve their narrow, partisan and parochial interest.
“State institutions’ loyalty, including that of the security services, is to the state and the republic not even to government,” he said.
Urging the media to take particular interest in his claims and independently verify or otherwise, Mr Iddrisu said he would file an urgent question to the Interior and Defence Ministers for answers.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
