The Minister of the Interior, Henry Quartey, has dismissed allegations that the government is illegally recruiting people into the security services.

His remark follows the allegations made by the National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Johnson Asiedu Nketiah, who accused the Interior Minister of attempting to bribe Minority Members of Parliament with police recruitment slots.

Mr Nketiah claimed that Mr Quartey offered recruitment opportunities to NDC legislators to silence their opposition to the recruitment of approximately 10,000 party foot soldiers into the police force.

• Read also: ‘Interior Minister tried to bribe NDC MPs with police recruitment slots’ – Asiedu Nketia

“At some point, the Interior Minister himself went to Parliament to try to, like, bribe our MPs and say, ‘Look, bring two persons each from your constituency, and let's add them so that you allow me to do it.’ Our MPs rejected it flatly,” he alleged on Joy News' PM Express on Wednesday, August 14.

In response to these accusations during an interview on JoyNews' 'The Pulse' on Thursday, August 15, Mr Quartey described the claims by the NDC National Chairman as unfounded.

He clarified that the Interior Ministry does not handle recruitment for the security services but instead collaborates with the agencies responsible for recruitment, ensuring that they advertise and establish eligibility criteria.

“The Ministry of Interior does not recruit. We are a Ministry and so we provide policy drive. The agencies are close with the authority to recruit, thereby, advertising, indicating eligibility criteria, going through medicals and all that,” he said.

Mr Quartey also expressed disappointment at the current state of political discourse in the country, stating that instead of educating Ghanaians, political actions and utterances are having the opposite effect.

He emphasised that the recruitment process has been transparently included in the mid-year budget review by the Finance Minister, which also mentioned other sectors such as education and nursing training.

“When the issue came up, the NDC picked rumours and made a press conference and made all kinds of allegations, alleging that the NPP is trying to put in plans to recruit. I’m disappointed in the choice of words and the attempt to incite the good people of this country against the security architecture of this country,” the Interior Minister said.