News:
November 13, 2025
Members of the Defense and Interior Committee of Parliament have sympathized with victims of yesterday’s army recruitment stamped in Accra that claimed six lives and injured several others.
“This morning the Committee for Defense and Interior paid a visit to the 37 Military Hospital to see for ourselves the level of injury sustained by the victims of yesterday’s tragedy at the Elwak Stadium”, the Chairman of the Committee, James Agalga stated when they visited the victims on Thursday, November 13, 2025.
The Committee’s visit follows a directive from the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Alban Bagbin to the committee to embark on the visit and propose recommendations for the way forward after two statements were made on the floor of the House on Wednesday and the Caretaker Minister, Cassiel Ato Forson also making official statement on the matter in parliament.
“So we are here in pursuit of the Speaker’s directive that the Committee takes steps, looks into the matter, the tragedy, whether it’s in the form of a probe, an investigation or whatever that is a decision the Committee will take. But in the meantime, we are aware that the armed forces itself have instituted a board of enquiring to establish what may have happened”, the Chairman has stated stating that the Committee was not going to hold simultaneous investigations because of the consequences of such an approach.
He assured the victims of parliament’s support, stating “These are young, strong people who are yearning to serve in our armed forces. If you are not patriotic, you will not want to serve in the armed forces because I recently returned from Nigeria and I witnessed the vetting of the service chiefs. One of them made a remark which was very profound. He said, “It takes a touch of madness for one to become a soldier because you and I, when we see danger, we retreat.” That is natural, not so? But for them, they are trained to confront danger. That is how serious it is for somebody to make the decision to become a soldier. Unfortunately, this incident happened.”
Meanwhile, the Ranking on the Committee Rev. John Ntim Fordjour called on the public to avoid politicizing the issue.
“We approach this matter not with partisan considerations, but with a national interest. This is not a time for politics. So, I would urge that everyone refrain from politicizing this rather unfortunate matter. We will look into it objectively and offer our constructive recommendations on the way forward. We are appealing that in the best interest of safeguarding lives of potential recruits, all nation-wide recruitment exercises be put to a halt and suspended for the time being, not just at Elwak, all nation-wide recruitment processes must be halted so that a very good job can be done in probing, in reviewing, performing, and then when we put in very optimal measures we can recommence the process.”
COMPENSATION
Reverend Ntim Fordjour also calls for adequate compensation for the affected persons including families of the deceased.
“Another appeal that we would want to convey to the government is to look at how some adequate
compensation could be looked at for our brave potential soldiers who have lost their lives for the families. For those who are wounded, it is our hope that when they recover, for those who will still be medically fit as per Ghana Armed Forces requirements for recruitment, they be prioritized.
For those who may for one reason or the other may not be fit to enter some considerations for their relatives to replace them who are fit and for some compensation to be granted. But we will support the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence so that we are putting the right measures to restore what has occurred so that we do not have this happening again.”
Ghanamps.com