Accra, May 5, GNA - President John Evans Atta Mills on Tuesday tasked the reconstituted Ghana Armed Forces Council to work towards improving the welfare of servicemen, while at the same time engendering a high sense of accountability, sacrifice and hard work in the forces. Swearing in members of the Council under the chairmanship of Vice President John Dramani Mahama at the Castle, Osu, President Mills asked them to pay particular attention to the welfare of the servicemen to buoy their performance and ensure that they have the resources to defend the nation as expected of them.

"Do not relegate to the background the welfare of the servicemen," the President told the 11-member Council made of Vice President, three cabinet ministers, and service commanders.

President Mills administered the oaths of office, allegiance and secrecy to the members which included the Lt. Gen. J.H. Smith, Minister of Defence, Mr Cletus Avoka, Minister for the Interior and Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, Foreign Minister.

The others were Major General P.A. Blay, Chief of Defence Staff, Major-General J.N. Adinkrah, Army Commander, Air-Vice Marshall Samson Oje, Air Force Commander, and Rear Admiral J.N. Quarshie, Naval Commander.

The rest were Brigadier General Wallace Gbedemah (rtd), Col Leticia Kwapong (rtd) and Chief Warrant Officer Adu Yaw Daniel. President Mills, who is also Commander in Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, tasked the council to help in building a force that was hardworking, compassionate and also able to display time honoured values such as justice and fairness.

He assured servicemen of government's readiness to improve their conditions of service in appreciation of the peril they went through in saving lives nationally and in international peacekeeping duties. Vice President Mahama thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and promised to work in addressing many of the welfare challenges faced by the forces to enable them to meet the nation's domestic and international conflict resolution obligations.

He said government had no intention to divide the forces along ethnic and tribal lines, giving the assurance that service commanders would be allowed to discharge their duties in "a professional manner". In essence, Vice President Mahama said, the Council would not allow the forces to be tangled in politics, adding that, recruitment in the service would also be along the lines of fairness, devoid of ethnic or sectional discrimination.