Army recruitment suspended

Monday February 2 2009 page 41
Story: Michael Donkor & Leticia Ohene Asiedu
Four hundred and twenty military recruits who had been selected across the country for a six-month training at the Shai Hills were disappointed last Saturday, when they were told at the El Wak Stadium that the exercise had been called off.
The recruits had gathered at the El Wak Stadium to be conveyed to the Military Training School at Shai Hills near Accra, when the news of the suspension of the programme was broken to them.
They had come from all the 10 regions where they passed body selection and medical examinations organised by the Ghana Armed Forces in May, 2008.
As early as 5 a.m., the would-be soldiers started arriving at the El Wak Stadium with their luggage. Some of them had arrived a day earlier because of the long journey to Accra, some accompanied by their parents.
All was set by 8 a.m. but 30 minutes later, a deputy director at the Records Department of the GAF, Major J. Vander-Pallen, pulled up in his military pick-up vehicle to announce to the candidates that the training exercise had been suspended until further notice and that each of them should provide him with their telephone numbers.
Major Vander-Pallen explained that it was an instruction from above and that he could not say more.
The candidates whose mood changed immediately could not hide their frustration and disappointment and started discussing the issue among themselves
They said in view of the instructions in the letter they had and the assurances of feeding and other things, they did not carry enough money on them to take them back to their destinations.
Some of them said their parents had to borrow money from the bank to be able to purchase the items listed on the prospectus for them while others said they had to empty their accounts and borrow money from their friends before they could acquire the items on the list.
Others also said they were in employment but when the GAF wrote to them that they were successful in the recruitment exercise they resigned in preference of the army.
After all efforts by the candidates to get the military to arrange for their transport back to their destinations failed others started offering for sale some of the items they had bought for the training exercise at half the price on the streets along the El Wak Sports Stadium.
When military sources were contacted on why the training exercise was suspended, they said it was due to alleged malpractices during the selection process in 2008.
It said the selection of the 420 candidates for the army category of the Ghana Armed Forces, which formed the first batch, was, therefore, suspended for the process to be investigated.
It said the whole exercise would be thoroughly reviewed before the next line of action would be taken.