The Defence Ministry has denied claims that the government is recruiting ‘mercenaries’ in preparation for the 2024 general elections.
At a presser on Tuesday, November 8, sector minister Dominic Nitiwul maintained that the said claims are untrue and baseless, adding that the government does not intend to compromise the security of the state.
“Let me state that the President will hand over to the duly elected President of Ghana on the 7th of January 2025. ”Nobody will interfere in the choice of the people of Ghana, not from the military, not the police, and not any politician.”
“This government has not brought anybody into the Jubilee House, who is not a soldier, who is not a police, or who is not a national security personnel. We have not done that since we came to power, and we don’t intend to do it,” Mr. Nitiwul stressed.
He further explained that the rigorous stages that one would have to go through to become an officer make it highly impossible for the said claim to even be true.
“To be an officer in the armed forces, there are six stages that you need to go through, and none of these six stages can and will ever be compromised. After you buy the form, you will then go for body selection, thus the second stage. After you have been selected that you are fully fit, it does not still guarantee that you will be an officer of the Armed Forces.
“You will go and write an entrance exam conducted by the University of Ghana. Also, you’d have to go through the medicals and there are too many things that the Medical team is looking for. Once you pass through this stage, then you do what we call an Outdoor Leaderless test, where officers will be divided into ten groups to assess people who have been put together in about 12 categories.
“These 12 cadets will then be assessed on who is a leader and it is there that they chose the people. If you pass this stage, you then go for an interview, where you’re marked or ranked by officers before you’ll be finally selected,” he explained.
Mr Nitiwul was reacting to a press conference held by Mr. James Agalga, the ranking member on the committee of defense, suggesting that there was a grand scheme to create a security apparatus loyal to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) rather than the state.
“The Minority takes a very serious view of the exposé, and we demand that government comes out to clarify if it is actually the case that mercenaries have been brought into this country and are being trained at Asutsuare, and they are taken by escorts to Asutsuare every morning by bus to train?” he revealed.
The allegation was first made by social media commentator, Kelvin Taylor, who claimed that some mercenaries were being trained by a top security officer at the Jubilee House.