64 Battalion Now Part Of Regular Army

Members of the erstwhile 64 Battalion of the Ghana Armed Forces have been integrated into the regular army with a clearly defined duty. The soldiers who, according to the Minister for Defence, did not have a clear task previously," now have a clearly defined role in the Ghana Armed Forces, adding that none of them have been sacked or fired from the Ghana Armed Forces.

Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor was refuting allegations by a questioner at the Meet-The-Press that members of the Battalion had been fired. He explained that it was not in the interest of the nation to put such a highly trained core of personnel on the streets.

The Minister also refuted allegations that Ghana is being used as a base for US Army personnel. He noted that Ghana is a sovereign country and any such move would be done after a careful weighing of options and the benefit to the country in the light of current and long-term possibilities. He however, admitted that, a number of US Marines are housed in the Cantonments area under a programme with the GAF.

On the issue of who the "Friends of the Ghana Armed Forces" were, Dr Addo-Kufuor said they were not any strange persons and were not benefiting in any way from their largesse.

"I can tell you without any inhibitions that they are SAMATEX Limited and IRANI Flowers who gave the GAF 200 million cedis each towards an agricultural business programme embarked by the GAF. "Others are Ghana Life Insurance Company (GLICO), which gave 10 million cedis, and the Ghana Seed Company, which donated 50,000 seedlings for the project."

Dr Addo-Kufuor also admitted that the Managing Director of SAMATEX is his cousin and had not had anything to do with the GAF since.