Opinions of Friday, 30 April 2010

Columnist: Prah, Prince

Massive Fraud In Military Recruitment (Part 2)

The allegation of massive fraud in the 2010 military recruitment must be enquired into without any further delay as evidence in various forms is available and will manifest between now and July 2010 when the first batch of Army recruits will commence training.

There is already sufficient, credible and admissible evidence to call for a probe, enquiry or Presidential Commission. If the opposition parties, especially the NPP, do not call for and insist on such a probe or Presidential Commission, they will live to regret their action or inaction in the 2012 general elections. The massive fraud in the 2010 military recruitment exercise is one of the ‘Fair or Foul means’ that Mr. Nii Lante Vanderpuije said at Metro TV a few days ago in the presence of and to the hearing of Madam Ursula Owusu.

As a matter of fact, this blog can say authoritatively that what Mr. Nii Lante Vanderpuije said had been allegedly revealed and is being re-echoed in various military circles by high ranking military officers especially at Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC), KAIPTC and Burma Camp at Service and General Headquarters. These officers are mostly from the Volta and Northern Regions and have allegedly maintained that the NDC will not hand over power to the NPP and will use the Security Services, especially the military, to perpetuate itself into power during the 2012 general elections.

There are witnesses-military and civilians- to these utterances and the concrete steps being taken to realize this goal. Surely, one of the ‘Fair or Foul means’ is the alleged massive fraud in the 2010 general recruitment and subsequent ones in 2011 and 2012. This blog has closely been monitoring the current recruitment exercise and can say without any contradiction that the allegation of massive fraud is not a figment of imagination but real and worrying.

The Central Screening Stage of the 2010 recruitment exercise at El- Wak Stadium and Burma Hall has seen and continues to see the worst form of fraud in the annals of the GAF manpower development. Several forms of ‘delete’ and ‘insert’ have allegedly taken place and continue to take place at the four major centers namely the Army Headquarters, the Navy Headquarters, the Airforce Headquarters, and the Medical Directorate of the General Headquarters. The alleged fraud took place before and during the Central Screenings in Accra after the regional screenings in all the ten regional capitals. The fraud is allegedly continuing before the final results are announced for successful candidates to commence medical examinations soon.

The dates for the Central Screening as announced for the various regions at all the ten regional capitals in March 2010 are as follows;

Upper East and Upper West-------29th March, 2010 Northern Region -------30th March 2010 Brong Ahafo Region-------31st March 2010 Central Region --------1st April 2010 Volta Region-------6th April 2010 Eastern Region --------7th April 2010 Western Region---------9th April 2010 Ashanti Region--------12th April 2010 Greater Accra-------14th April 2010

It will shock well- meaning and peace-loving Ghanaians to read and hear that apart from the numerous “deletion” and “insertion” that allegedly took place on the above stipulated dates numbering over 500, a total fraud was committed on Friday 16th April 2010 at Burma Hall when from nowhere over 300 potential recruits were assembled at Burma Hall to write a test to join the selection process. This was a strange and fraudulent activity in the 2010 general recruitment exercise. This blog sent scouts to all the ten regional capitals and their recruitment centers and can report authoritatively that Friday 16th April 2010 was not one of the days announced for Central Screening in Accra. The 9 days starting from 29th March and ending 14th April 2010 with candidates from the Greater Accra Region were the only days announced to the hearing of all and sundry.

Therefore, 16th April 2010 was not and did not feature on the calendar of the recruitment exercise. Yet, it was on that day that the Military High Command allegedly perpetrated the greatest number of fraud in a single day at a single central (Burma Hall) in the 2010 recruitment exercise.

This blog interviewed several candidates, successful and unsuccessful, at all the stages of the 2010 recruitment exercise and has the names and index numbers to buttress all the assertions made. Again, several serving military personnel who are worried about the current state of affairs have been interviewed and have corroborated most of the allegations made by the candidates and our special scouts.

We can reveal that some candidates who were unsuccessful in earlier exercise took advantage of the “illegal” screening on 16th April 2010 to rejoin the process. The grapevine has it that all that the candidates who took part in the screening exercise on 16th April 2010 are NDC sponsored candidates. These candidates were not short-listed at all at the initial stages and therefore do not have invitation letters.

They did not take part in the regional screening exercise. Consequently, their documents (i.e. educational certificate and birth/ baptismal certificates) were not examined. Neither were they taken through the initial or preliminary medical examination involving body examination and height determination. Yet, all these people were allowed to join the process while those who genuinely qualified by all standards are being drop to make way for these “NDC foot-soldiers” who are to become real national soldiers to terrorize, intimidate and harass the NPP and it’s supporters in 2012 and beyond.

This blog can also reveal that another group of NDC sponsored candidates are to join the process at the medical examinations stage starting on 4th May 2010. This group will not have taken part in any of the recruitment exercises and yet will be amongst the first batch of Army recruits to be trained in July 2010 or the Navy and Airforce recruits to be trained in January 2011. As part of the massive fraud, the dates for the medical examinations at 37 Military Hospital to start are only four namely 4th, 5th, 6th and 8th May 2010.

Specially selected doctors mostly trained in Cuba and North Africa and members of the NDC (names withheld for now) and medical teams of NDC persuasion only are to conduct the medical examinations with alacrity. Currently, the Director Manpower Planning at the General Headquarters has been completely sidelined and eclipsed in the Scheme of events because he refused to be part of the fraud.

A directive from the Chief of Defence Staff has stripped him of all his powers, as per the charter of his office, and the three Service Headquarters and the Medical Directorate are in full charge. The examinations conducted by the office of the Director Manpower Planning are now completely useless. All the test papers, scores and relevant information have been taken to these “four important recruitment centers” to the Chagrin, disappointment and dissatisfaction of all well- meaning officers and men of the GAF.

All the checks and balances in the recruitment process have been thrown to the dogs. A few officers and men are the referees, judges and lawyers of the whole recruitment exercise. The most powerful Visible officers and men of the NDC persuasion in the GAF charged with the latest stages of the fraudulent recruitment exercise are alleged to be Colonel Kwashie at the Medical Directorate, two Lieutenant- Colonels of the Army, one from the Signal Regiment and the other from Army Hq, a Major from the Military Police, Warrant Officers Class one Kabu and Baka from Army Hq; Lt Cdr Kpetigo and a Lieutenant from Navy Hq; Wing Commander Fianya and a 2IC from Airforce Hq.

It was revealed to this blog that Wg Cdr Fianya who voluntarily asked for his release and was on Terminal Leave in 2009 was reinstated by the NDC Administration to assist in the “ways and means” in the recruitment exercise. The teams selected for the vital stages of the recruitment are to facilitate the NDC agenda.

For instance, it is alleged that some candidates who were sacked from writing exams were escorted back to the exam hall by the Forces Sergeant Major on the orders of the Chief of the Defence Staff. On another occasion, it was alleged that the CDS himself walked into the exam hall to give verbal directives to ensure that the ‘fraud agenda’ was on course.

“Why won’t the CDS personally ensure that the fraud agenda was on course?” a concerned officer questioned. It is alleged that the CDS alone brought in over 30 candidates from one region at a go to be passed at all cost. After this blog’s publication on the massive fraud in the 2010 recruitment, attempts are being made by senior military officers to sue the writer who writes for the Daily Searchlight newspaper for damages and more importantly to restrain him from publishing further the malpractices taking place.

This attempt has failed and will fail as we have all the necessary evidence to support our allegations. We are calling for an urgent probe, enquiry or Presidential Commission into the 2010 military recruitment especially when Gen. JH Smith said recently at the ‘Meet the Press Series’ that throughout his 42 years Service, it was never possible to hold people’s hands into the service without their passing through all selection processes.

All patriotic Ghanaians and Parliament in particular should investigate these allegations. Source:prahprince-prince.blogspot.com