The Minority in Parliament has again accused the Akufo-Addo administration of politicising recruitment into Ghana’s security agencies.
Addressing the press in Parliament on Friday, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said the government has undertaken a recruitment process without giving the required notice.
He described these alleged recruitments into the army, police service and immigration service as being “clandestine” in nature.
The Minority Leader also said this constitutes a form of discrimination by the New Patriotic Party government.
“There is some training going on at the police depots…There is some training going on between [the depots] Tesano and Pwalugu. This is not an acceptable public service practice,” Mr. Iddrisu said.
“Due process has been ignored by this government and by the political administration to serve their narrow partisan interests that will undermine their cohesion.”
“The idea of a public notice allows every eligible Ghanaian citizen desirous of to apply,” he noted further.
Mr. Iddrisu said the Minority will be demanding a response from the Ministers of Interior and Defence.
“I will accordingly be filing an urgent question to demand that,” the Minority Leader assured.
Police suspend training of recruits; issue measures to curb COVID-19 spread
As part of efforts to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country, the Ghana Police Service suspended training of its recruits in March 2020.
In a statement, the leadership of the Ghana Police Service said “recruits training activities have been suspended. Recruits other than the final/passing out squad have been released to go home until further directives.”
It is unclear whether the Minority’s claims of an ongoing training by the security agencies has anything to do with the earlier recruits that were asked to go home following the COVID-19 pandemic.