The Vice Chairman of Parliament’s Defence and Interior Committee, Collins Owusu Amankwah, has dismissed claims by the Minority that the government was recruiting into the security services on the blind side of Ghanaians.
He told journalists in Parliament, Accra, yesterday that the allegation was a ‘ruse’ intended to divert the attention of the public from the Airbus scandal which he said had become an albatross around the neck of the National Democratic Congress.
Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, addressing journalists last Friday said the “secret and clandestine recruitments” into the Ghana Armed Forces, the Ghana Police and Immigration Services, if not nibbed in the bud, would injure the neutrality of the security services in the future.
The Tamale South MP said the alleged recruitment underway raised fundamental question of efforts to politicise the security services by enlisting persons belonging to a particular political party.
Parrying the allegations, however, Mr Amankwah, MP, Manhyia North admitted that trainings were underway but due process had been followed.
“It is true that there has been ongoing recruitments into the security services and same has been justified,” he stated.
He explained that when the Ghana Immigration Service for instance opened up its application process, 84,000 persons applied out of which 41,000 were shortlisted.
“So there is a huge backlog and for that matter they are calling them in batches and I don’t think that should be readvertised.
“So his claim about agencies indulged in shoddy dealing is not true,” he said.
According to him “there is no law that dictates that when the Ghana Police Service or the Ghana Immigration Service is recruiting they should publicise the process.”
The Ghana Police Service, he said, had a selection board and the standard procedure had been followed based on the qualification of the recruits.
“Per the Police Service Act, without going through the due process, one cannot be recruited into the police service.
“To the best of my knowledge, due process has been followed and that process has been very transparent.”
He said the Minority lacked the moral justification to question the current administration of secret recruitment because before leaving office in 2017, the NDC recruited people into the services without advertising same but President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo went ahead to commission them into services.
