You’re free to join ISIS – GAF to sacked army recruits

The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has said that the dismissed military recruits who have threatened to join ISIS are free to do so.

GAF dismissed some 501 military recruits in December 2015 for staging an unauthorised protest which officials say was mutinous.

The recruits, who were undergoing a six-month mandatory training at the Army Recruits Training School (ARTS) at Shai Hills on December 3, 2015 were said to have staged an unauthorised assembly on the school square, marched to the instructors’ accommodation and demanded to be sent home because the training was strenuous.

Some of the dismissed recruits have tried all means possible to get reinstated but the military command says they have closed the chapter on their dismissal. The recruits believe they qualified but have been dismissed wrongly as a result of other considerations instead of their inability to complete the required training.

But responding to the claims by the recruits, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) for GAF, Colonel Aggrey Quarshie says the recruits are free to join ISIS and Boko Haram since every Ghanaian is at liberty to join any group of their choice. ''Everyone is entitled to join any group and so if they want to join ISIS, that is their choice...If their relatives or family members will allow them, then that is their own cup of tea.''

Colonel Aggrey Quarshie was speaking to Kwame Tutu on Frontline on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm on the detention of a military officer who is said to have taken a photo of himself sipping kalyppo.