Lawyer and Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has alleged that the 5,000 slots announced for recruitment into the country’s security services have effectively already been allocated through political and personal influence.

Speaking on Newsfile on Saturday, March 14, he claimed the process had been compromised long before the completion of the official recruitment stages.

“What I’m going to say is hard but must be said,” Mr Bentil stated. “These 5,000 spaces in the security services are already filled. The MPs have submitted names, ministers have submitted names, chiefs and pastors have submitted names. The staffers at the Presidency have submitted names, and it’s a scam.”

Minister explains limited recruitment

His comments follow an announcement by Interior Minister Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak that only 5,000 applicants will be recruited in the first phase of the ongoing nationwide recruitment exercise into the security services.

Addressing a press conference in Parliament, the minister explained that although hundreds of thousands of applicants had progressed through various stages of the process, the government could only absorb a limited number due to fiscal constraints.

According to him, fewer than 30,000 applicants were disqualified after the documentation stage, leaving roughly 400,000 candidates eligible to continue in the process.

To further reduce the number, the pass mark for the aptitude tests was set at 65 per cent, with only those who meet the threshold progressing to the medical examination stage.

Mr Mohammed-Mubarak acknowledged that many applicants may be disappointed but urged young people to remain patient, assuring them that the government intends to create employment opportunities across multiple sectors.