The Ranking Member of the Defence and Interior Committee in Parliament, Rev John Ntim Fordjour, has called for an immediate halt to the ongoing military recruitment exercise.

According to him, the Ghana Armed Forces must prioritise the lives of potential recruits to ensure there are no further casualties.

President Mahama visits 37 Military Hospital following recruitment stampede

Speaking on JoyNews on Wednesday, November 12, 2025, Ntim Fordjour expressed the view that the army must reassess and review how its recruitment exercises are conducted.

“It [recruitment] must be suspended immediately. Let us prioritise lives, and as we halt it, we need to get back to the table and review the entire scheduling, the entire processes, how many people were scheduled for a day and vis-à-vis the crowd, vis-à-vis the control mechanisms put in place. No one should just give an excuse that there's a surge in applications and for which there must be a stampede situation for people to perish. So, we immediately must halt the process,” he said.

The lawmaker for Assin South also called for a probe into the incident, stating that it would provide proper insight into what might have caused it and help review the processes.

He added that the recruitment should continue only once proper measures and arrangements have been put in place to ensure that such an incident does not happen again.

“Investigation has to be undertaken to establish the facts, and reviews have to be put into the process for us to be able to save lives. If we need to look at scheduling, the optimum number of potential recruits to be scheduled per day, we have to do that.

“If we even have to further decentralise Greater Accra, Ashanti, and some of the high-demand centers, we need to take that decision very quickly and halt every process so that we prevent further deaths and save lives. Then, when all those measures are in place and we are satisfied that our potential recruits are not going to risk their lives in their quest to serve the nation, we will give clearance for the process to recommence,” he added.

Meanwhile, six people have died in a stampede at the El-Wak Sports Stadium during the military recruitment exercise.

The tragic incident, which occurred on Wednesday, November 12, 2025, has been attributed to an unexpected surge in the number of applicants who thronged the stadium.

Reports indicate that applicants breached security protocols and rushed the stadium gates even before the scheduled start of the exercise.

According to the military, a total of 28 casualties has been recorded so far among potential recruits, including six confirmed deaths, dispelling reports that the death toll had risen to 12.

Six reported dead over stampede during military recruitment exercise

The military indicated that five people are in critical condition and have been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the 37 Military Hospital, while 12 others are in a fairly critical condition.

“I need to just get something straight. There's erroneous information going out. The casualties we have that came through were 28 in number. Those who are dead are six, not 12. Those who are critical and in ICU are five. We have 12 who are fairly critical. The rest are stable,” a military representative clarified.

MAG/MA

Watch scenes from El-Wak stadium after stampede kills six during recruitment exercise



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