Ghanaians Queue To "Fight In Iraq"

Hundreds of well-built young men thronged the Sekondi Gyandu park last Tuesday, following an announcement by two radio stations that the United States of America was looking for able-bodied Ghanaians to fight for them in Iraq and later integrate them into the US Army.

The two radio stations - SKY FM and Goodnews FM, both based in Takoradi jointly engineered what turned out to be the expensive joke on All Fools Day, otherwise known as April Fool on April 1, this year and nearly paid a dear price for it. The timely intervention of the police prevented angry youth from vandalising the premises of the two radio stations for carrying the ''April Fool'' joke too far.

For two days running before the April Fools Day, the two radio stations announced that an American Military General had arrived in Ghana to recruit men to fight for the US. Goodnews FM went further to grant an interview to a slang speaking ''American General'' who confirmed that the United States wanted more men to fight in Iraq to topple President Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Interested young men were asked to report at the Sekondi Gyandu Park at 8am on 1st April, for the recruitment exercise. Accordingly, on Tuesday, hundreds of able-bodied young men travelled far and near to Gyandu Park with the hope of getting recruited into the American Army to fight in Iraq.

Some of the young men had travelled as far Jomoro, Half-Assini, Tarkwa and Axim, while many others also journeyed in the twin city to the Sekondi Gyandu park.

Having waited for more than four hours in the scorching sun, it dawned on the hopeful applicants that they had been ''April Fooled''. They gathered sticks, stones and other implements and decided to march to the two radio stations to vandalise their offices. A detachment of the Police had to be quickly called in by the Regional Security Council to prevent the angry mob from marching to the stations.

PIC: An Archive picture of soldiers queuing to enlist in the Ghana army