The Minister for the Interior, Henry Quartey, has denied allegations that the government is illegally enlisting members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) into the security services.
These accusations were made by the Minority in Parliament, who claim that the government is recruiting NPP members in preparation for the December general elections.
According to the Minority caucus, each NPP Parliamentary Candidate has been allocated 30 slots for enlistment into various security services, a move they argue is intended to influence the December elections.
Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the Minority Leader, raised these concerns at a press conference, warning that any unauthorized actions by these recruits—referred to as “NPP thugs in uniform”—would face strong opposition from National Democratic Congress (NDC) supporters.
In an interview, Mr. Quartey described the Minority’s claims as regrettable and assured that the government is not engaged in such activities.
He said recruitment has not yet commenced and, when it does, it will not be conducted secretly.
Mr. Quartey explained that the government’s priority is to clear the backlog of recruits from previous years, which is why no advertisement has been made so far.
However, he assured that the agencies will soon announce the eligibility criteria for the new recruits.
“It is rather unfortunate that MPs and of course a leader, Minority Leader and a former deputy Minister of Interior could actually spew this falsehood into the public. MPs currently are about 137…it cannot be possible, it is not and it cannot be possible. I am rather disappointed in this approach…Yes, we are recruiting but it is not a secret recruitment. We haven’t even started. The agencies are going to send the eligibility criteria. I am sure by this week they will do that.”
“What we are saying rather is that look in the last couple of years people have gone to buy forms. And for some reasons, they could not gain admission into the security and intelligence agencies. So we thought it wise that we don’t have to advertise anymore for people to continuously pay monies because you have a certain number of people that per the clearance you have to recruit.
“But I want to say on authority and I want to say again on authority that giving 30 slots to MPs is false. It is not true. It has never happened before and I am surprised that they want to go on this tangent,” he said on Citi News.
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