By Edzorna Francis Mensah
The Minority Caucus in Parliament has called on the government to halt their described irregular and opaque recruitment into security services as reported in The Chronicle newspaper of Monday, 8th July 2024 that “government is about to commence recruitment of some 11,000 personnel into the security services”.
The report said 3,000 personnel will be recruited into the Ghana Immigration Service, 4,000 into the Ghana Police Service, 2000 into the Ghana National Fire Service, 1,500 into Ghana Prisons Service and 500 into the Narcotics Control Commission.
It further said, “Since this is a backlog the Ministry of Interior is going to work with, there would be no advertisement in the national dailies calling on qualified applicants to apply to join the security services”.
But in a sharp rebuttal, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah Deputy Minority Leader in the news conference held on Wednesday 11th July, 2024, disclosed that, “Minority is shockingly alarmed at the said publication and takes strong exception to the government’s planned irregular recruitment into the country’s security services ahead of the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections”.
He recounted the fact that the NDC Minority raised concerns about similar secret recruitment of NPP footsoldiers, “including its thugs, into the security services as part of its election-rigging machine for the 2020 general elections, “procedural breaches and nepotism characterize these irregular recruitments”.
On 20th May 2024, the Minority Caucus addressed a press conference in Parliament on the government’s recruitment of NPP thugs into the security services to further its rigging agenda of the 2024 elections.
At that press conference, the Minority raised several concerns over the propriety of the clandestine recruitment, procedural breaches, nepotism, lack of transparency and fairness, and the implications for the peace and stability of our country ahead of the crucial general elections in December.
They then highlighted credible information suggesting that the ruling NPP was manipulating recruitment processes to favour its parliamentary candidates with 30 slots allocated to each of them for the various security agencies including the Police Service, the Immigration Service, the Fire Service and the Prison Service.
In the interest of transparency and accountability, the Minority insists that any attempt to recruit personnel into the security agencies under the Ministry of the Interior must be preceded by an advertisement which clearly spells out the eligibility criteria in order to allow for equal access and opportunity to all Ghanaians.
The NDC Minority believes that all Ghanaians regardless of gender, tribe, political lineage, religion or creed deserve a fair and equal opportunity as far as employment into state institutions is concerned.
“The integrity of our security services and the trust of the people of Ghana in our institutions depend on our collective commitment to transparency and fairness, especially in the recruitment into the security services.
The Minister of the Interior must desist from this opaque and irregular recruitment with barely six months to the crucial 2024 general elections.
It is important to restore the integrity, as well as the confidence and trust of Ghanaians in our security services. Any recruitment into the security services must therefore be done through a transparent, fair and just process in order to safeguard the peace and stability of our democracy”.
