'De-Eye' a job recruitment agency, not militia group – Government

The government has refuted claims that 'De-Eye' is a militia group being sponsored and trained by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) at the Osu Castle.

Rather, the government said the group is a company that is into finding jobs for young unemployed persons.

An exposé by investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni suggests that the former seat of government, which houses the offices of some current ministers, have been turned into a training camp for De-Eye group.

The same venue is where the Commission of Inquiry into the Ayawaso West Wuogon by-election violence has been holding its public hearings for the past two weeks. According to the exposé, De-Eye militia group has been operating since the New Patriotic Party won power in the December 2016 elections.

Responding to the documentary, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said in a press statement on Friday, 8 March 2019 that the documentary is a “malicious” misrepresentation of facts and lack evidence to support the narrative that President Nana Akufo-Addo is sponsoring a militia group.

“The promotion of the documentary, and the narrative of the documentary stated emphatically that a ‘militia’ (a military force raised from the civil population to supplement the regular army in an emergency) has been uncovered training and operating at a ‘security’ zone with the complicity of the current administration, and identified as belonging to the New Patriotic Party.

“Surprisingly, the 20-minute documentary does not show any evidence of such a militia, or a vigilante group training or operating at a security zone. Rather, it shows a group of young men and women dressed up in white shirts and black suits converging on the Christiansburg Castle in Osu in the belief that jobs will be found for them,” the statement noted.

“From Joy News’ own documentary, it is clear that the company is involved in helping unemployed young men and women find jobs, and operates a website that openly states their objectives”, Mr Oppong Nkrumah explained.

Additionally, the statement said: “…There have been many occasions where Joy News had produced documentaries based on facts, truth and accuracy. However, on this occasion, this so-called ‘undercover’ documentary falls short of their own standards. It only puts together conjuncture, malice, mischief, sensationalism and unvalidated suspicions, and presented to the Ghanaian people as truth”.



Attached is the full statement: