The Majority in Parliament has accused the Minority caucus of stirring up political tension with its allegations of secret recruitment into the security services.
On Wednesday, July 10, the Minority threatened to summon the Interior Minister to the House over claims of recruiting 11,000 personnel from a backlog of applicants without following due process.
However, the First Deputy Majority Whip, Habib Iddrisu, in addressing journalists dismissed these allegations as untrue, clarifying that the Ministry of the Interior is not recruiting 11,000 personnel as alleged.
Instead, the ministry is seeking clearance for security agencies to recruit, and the agencies will conduct their advertisements, screening, and medical examinations.
Iddrisu explained that the security agencies inform the Ministry of the Interior about their personnel needs, and the last recruitment exercise saw over 50,000 applicants, with those who were not successful but met the qualifications forming the backlog.
The Majority caucus accused the Minority of distorting facts and causing unnecessary tension, emphasising that the recruitment process is transparent and follows established procedures.
“They have distorted a lot of things which are actually not true. It is inaccurate. They [The minority] are throwing it into the public to cause political tension with regard to the recruitment process. In the first place, the Ministry of Interior is not recruiting any 11,900 [said figures] as they are putting it out there. It is never true. And also, the fact that there is no backlog in terms of the security recruitment.
“What is on notice or what is true is that the Ministry of Interior only seeks for clearance for their security agencies to recruit people into the security agency. Meaning, the Ministry of Interior will facilitate through the Ministry of Finance to get commencement for their recruitment.
“That is why you see that when they are going to recruit anybody into the police service, the police will do their advertisement, they will do their own screening, they will do their own medical. The process is for them. The Ministry of Interior only facilitates, so it is not the Ministry of Interior that is recruiting.
“The security agencies feed the Ministry of Interior about the need for personnel and this very one, when they said that there is no backlog, the last time they did recruitment, over 50,000 people applied. So when 50,000 people apply, and at the end of the day, those who are successful are less than 50,000, those who still apply and have qualifications on their forms, means that they are part of the backlog that we are talking about. So it is not the case that you said that there is no backlog,” he stated.