Minority calls for inquiry into alleged 11,000 recruits to security agencies

The National Democratic Congress Minority Caucus in Parliament has called for an investigation into Interior Minister Henry Quartey's alleged announcement of 11,000 recruits to security agencies.According to a statement issued by Mr Mahama Ayariga, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central and copied to the Ghana News Agency said: '…The media reported that the Interior Minister said the 11,000 recruits into the security agencies announced by the Government will come from a preexisting list of youth applicants and those who are not part of the list will not be considered.''…It was reported that the NPP government shared 30 slots each to their Parliamentary Candidates in the forthcoming elections to distribute to their party foot soldiers. The Minority in Parliament had called for a probe of that,' the statement added.According to some media sources, 'the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Finance has indicated that barring any unforeseen circumstances, the gover nment will begin clearing the backlog of applicants who had applied to join the various security agencies under the Interior Ministry, beginning Monday, July 8, 2024.'However, Mr Ayariga claimed that several years later, after the private sector had suffered a crippling blow and unemployment had created a very despondent youth, the NPP decided that announcing 11,000 recruitments into security agencies would calm the youth's nerves.'But the refusal to use a fair and transparent process to carry out the recruitment might fuel more anger against the political class. 'We must fight for youth with no political connections to be given a fair and equal opportunity as citizens,' it quoted Mr Ayariga as saying.The statement went on to say that the events would be the alleged biggest scandal in Ghana's security sector recruitment history.'What is about to happen is potentially the greatest scandal in Ghana's security sector recruitment history. This rogue exercise must be resisted,' it said.Citing the recent youth uprising in Kenya, the statement stated that it had allegedly prompted the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration to announce the recruitment with youth in mind.'The banking sector collapse alone cost Ghana more than 20,000 jobs directly and indirectly. The bank workers lost their jobs. Service providers to the banks lost their jobs. Businesses and individuals who relied on their investments with the banks to run their own micro and small-scale industries saw a collapse of their businesses and hence their employees' lost jobs as well,' it alleged.Source: Ghana News Agency