Minority says recruitment into security services is shrouded in opacity
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary Minority on Monday said the recruitments into the security services under the Ministry of the Interior is shrouded in opacity to create an unequal access to some people in the name of a “so-called backlog.”
Reacting to the advertisements for recruitments under the Interior Ministry, the Minority said no such backlog existed on the record.
A statement issued by Mr James Agalga, the Ranking Member for the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, copied to the Ghana News Agency, said the Minority had taken note of publications in August 7, 2024, edition of the Ghanaian Times and Daily Graphic newspapers, advertising recruitments into the security services under the Interior Ministry.
It said those advertisements came on the back of a recent petition by the Minority to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate complaint of unequal and unfair recruitment of personnel into the security services based on a purported backlog.
“Whilst the CHRAJ was seized with the Minority’s petition, it came to the Minority as a surprise that the security services, under the Ministry of the Interior, namely- the Ghana Police Service, the Ghana National Fire Service, Ghana Prisons Service and the Ghana Immigration Service- had all placed open advertisements, which restrict the 2024 recruitment process to only persons who applied in 2021, at a time the legality of recruiting from a purported backlog was the subject of a petition before CHRAJ,” the statement said.
“These ads were an attempt to stampede the CHRAJ in its investigations and to mislead Ghanaians into believing that the right thing is finally being done.”
It said the peace and security of the country and the stability of its democracy would once again be in jeopardy should the Government be allowed to have its way through this ongoing restricted recruitment.
“The Minority hereby calls on the National Peace Council, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Office of the National Chief Imam, our development partners, civil society organisations and all lovers of peace to speak out before it is too late,” the statement said.
It called for a strict adherence to a balanced structuring of all the security services including the Ghana Armed Forces, through the creation of equal access and opportunity for all in terms of recruitment.
The NDC Minority reiterated that they were in principle not against the recruitment of the youth into the security services but its objective “is to guarantee equal access and opportunity for all regardless of one’s gender, ethnicity, religion or creed when it comes to recruitment into the security services.”
Source: GNA