Press conference by the Minority in parliament on government’s recruitment of NPP Thugs into the security services to aid the NPP to rig the 2024 elections, Addressed by the Minority Leader, HON. Cassiel Ato Forson (Ph.D), in parliament house.
Monday, 20th May, 2024.
1. Ladies and gentlemen of the media, thank you for honouring our invitation.
2. We have invited you to this important press conference to inform the people of Ghana about some worrying developments on the security front ahead of the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.
3. Sometime in 2019, that is a year before the last general elections, the then NDC Minority in Parliament addressed a press conference through its Ranking Member for the Defence and Interior Committee, Hon. James Agalga, on the subject of illegal recruitment into the security services.
4. Hon. Agalga said at the time and I quote:
“just as the recruitment of personnel into the police service in 2018 was characterised by outright nepotism and procedural breaches, the recruitment exercise which is currently ongoing, is, to say the least, fraudulent. In 2019, there has been no advertisement whatsoever for recruitment into the police service”
5. At the time, our concern was that there had been recruitment into the Ghana Police Service in 2018 and 2019 which had overlooked all the considerations of a professional and a non-politically aligned police service.
6. The recruitments into the police service in 2018 and 2019 was motivated by partisan considerations and nepotism which ensured that mainly footsoldiers and political operatives of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) were recruited by the Ghana Police Service.
7. These nepotistic recruitment into the police service breached established recruitment procedures of the Ghana Police Service.
8. Those recruitments were secretly done as they were not advertised for all qulaified Ghanaians to apply.
9. The NDC Minority in view of the fraudulent nature of the recruitment at the time, called for “… the immediate cancellation of the secret recruitment embarked upon by the police, prisons and immigration service in 2019”.
10. Notwithstanding the fact that the Minority raised serious concerns about the criteria adopted by this NPP Akufo-Addo government to recruit personnel into the security agencies, it has persisted in packing the security agencies with party footsoldiers and cronies without regard to laid down procedures for the recruitment of personnel.
11. The NDC Minority can authoritatively state that the NPP government again has illegally and fraudulently given out 30 slots each to its parliamentary candidates for recruitment into the security services of our country.
12. The recruitment of NPP foot soldiers into the security services especially in this election year is a calculated attempt to compromise the elections, given that the loyalty of the new recruits in the event that they are deployed will be to the ruling NPP and not to the state as is required of all security personnel.
13. The murder of eight (8) innocent Ghanaians during the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections by NPP party hooligans masked as security personnel is still fresh on our minds.
14. These needless deaths was as a result of the infiltration of our security services by such NPP thugs and hoodlums who were recruited into the security services.
15. The blood of those whose lives were unlawfully and violently taken by NPP thugs in security uniforms will continue to be on the hands of President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Alhaji Bawumia who continue to bastardise an otherwise professional Ghana Police Service.
16. It is unacceptable that the government continues to put cheap partisan considerations ahead of the overall peace, security and stability of our country in the run up to the 2024 elections.
17. We wish to remind President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Alhaji Bawumia that they will not have their way this time regardless of whatever manouverings that they will roll out in the 2024 elections.
18. We will resist these shenannigans with all might. Our members, supporters and sympathisers will not just defend themselves against unlawful attacks by NPP thugs in uniforms, we shall hold these NPP hoodlums personally responsible for their unlawful violations of the laws of Ghana and the legitimate rights of our people.
19. It is in the interest of the NPP footsoldiers to act lawfully or face the full consequences of their actions and the wrath of our supporters.
20. Just as the Minority protested vehemently against the politicisation of our security services through illegal recruitment in 2019, we once again demand that recruitment into all the security services be halted forthwith to allow for advertisements to be made with the qualification criteria duly spelt out.
21. By so doing, we would have created equal opportunity for all Ghanaians who will then be selected on the basis of merit and not cheap partisan and nepotistic considerations.
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