Ghana Armed Forces must be regionally balanced - Koi-Larbi

Mr Agyare Koi-Larbi, Member of Parliament for Akropong, on Friday said a regionally balanced Armed Forces would be the most loyal, focused and nationalistic force needed for the country's constitutional development.

The member, who tabled a motion in Parliament in 2000 calling for regional balance in the Ghana Armed Forces, said if it were now the policy of the Armed Forces to ensure national balance in recruitment then no one should be left in doubt about it, "they should be bold enough to tell the nation".

Mr Koi-Larbi told the Ghana News Agency (GNA): "What I sought to correct two years ago was not done with malice;" adding that an armed force based on ethnicity could wreak havoc.

The member's comments followed Former President Rawlings' assertion that recruitment into the Armed Forces was being politicised. Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor, Minister of Defence, had reacted saying the government did not influence the recruitment policy of the Armed Forces.

Mr Koi-Larbi said the basic complaint during the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration was that certain ethnic groups were being prevented from entering the Armed Forces.

"In my own area, that is Akwapim, the youth complained that they were being rejected for being the kinsmen of General Frederick William Akwasi Akuffo, an executed former Head of State." He said he felt it was dangerous hence the motion " and now the time has come for the Armed Forces to belong to all ethnic groups".

Asked if Akwapim youth were now serving in the Forces, he said; "I am yet to find out"Mr Koi-Larbi said the principle that must guide any recruitment policy of the Ghana Armed Forces should be: "Can this person ensure that the security of our nation is not compromised at all times?"

He said: "I am prepared to back any member even a Minority member, who has the facts to support a claim that the army is being politicised." In 2000 the NDC's overwhelming majority in the then Parliament defeated Mr Koi-Larbi's motion.