Stop politicising recruitment into security services -Ahwoi

The Minister of the Interior, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi, has called for a stop to the politicisation of recruitment into the security services.

He said the practice whereby ruling political parties influenced the recruitment of their sympathisers into the security services was not the best and must be stopped.

“It’s a dangerous trend and we have to stop it somewhere,” he told journalists in Accra last Tuesday, when his ministry took its turn at the ‘Meet-the-Press’ series.

In a frank submission, Mr Ahwoi said the practice of recruiting cohorts of the ruling party into the security services cut across past and present administrations.

He said service commanders found the phenomenon as a major challenge because they were often given political badges depending on the decisions they took in the recruitment process.

In spite of the many inexplicable fire outbreaks — one of which hit the Abuja slum in Accra hours after the Interior Minister had met the press — violent crimes, especially by armed robbers who have become more ruthless and daring, and pockets of communal conflicts that have rocked the country recently, Mr Ahwoi maintained Ghana was safe and Ghanaians could go to bed without fear.

Although the Ministry of Information, where the news conference took place, was about 800 metres away from the Supreme Court, proceedings at the election petition hearing impacted significantly on the promptness of the ‘meet-the-press’.

The Supreme Court had unusually risen after 5:00 pm on Tuesday as counsel for the petitioners, Philip Addison, wrapped up his cross-examination of Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan.

The effect was that journalists covering the ‘meet-the-press’ had to wait for more than two hours until 5:18 pm for the start of the programme, which was scheduled to begin at 3:00 pm, as the officials waited for Ghana Television (GTV) team to refocus its cameras from the Supreme Court to the Ministry of Information Conference Room to beam the programme live.

A deputy minister of Information, Mr Felix Ofosu Quakyi, apologised for the delay and assured journalists at the beginning of the programme that the message that the Interior Minister carried would be worth the long wait.

And when Mr Ahwoi mounted the podium, his message was worth the long wait, perhaps, as he claimed that there was relative peace and security in the country and that Ghanaians could enjoy their sleep.

Presenting the state of national security, particularly within the period 2012—July, 2013, he said major crimes had reduced from 234,242 in 2010 to 231,908 in 2011, and further down to 228,653 in 2012.

But he could not gloss over the prevalence of violent crimes, including armed robbery, saying, “Our aim is to get rid of them completely so that we can sleep in the night.”

The Interior Minister had also briefed the media on some of the achievements and challenges in the security agencies under his ministry, including the Ghana Prisons Service, Ghana National Fire Service, Ghana Immigration Service and National Disaster Management Organisation.

By Kofi Yeboah/Ghana
Writer’s Email: kofi.yeboah@graphic.com.gh