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| Armed Forces Crumble Under Addo Kufuor |
2/7/2007 |
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• Director Of Military Intelligence Goes On AWOL
• Soldiers Now In The Business Of Collecting Bribe
• Defence Minister Nicknamed “20%” For Allegedly Increasing Military Contract Kickback From 10% To 20%
Accra, (Lens Investigative Desk) -- Kwame Addo Kufuor, the Defence Minister brother of John Agyekum Kufuor, never loses any opportunity to tout that he has professionalized the armed forces to heights never reached before and is actually basing his desire to succeed his brother as president on what he terms as his good record at the Ministry of Defence.
The Ghanaian Lens can however reveal today that Kwame Addo Kufuor has done to the Ghana Armed Forces what no Defence Minister has ever done except that what he has done is that he has destroyed the pride and morale of the once respected Ghana Armed Forces.
The silhouetting investigative team of The Ghanaian Lens has uncovered what can be best be described as the killing of the spirit of the majority of the officers and men of the Ghana Armed Forces since the NPP took over the reins of government and Kwame Addo Kufuor became the Defence Minister.
The very sharp investigative lenses of this paper has found that the situation is so bad that the armed forces is hemorrhaging at both the officer and other rank levels.
One big fish, who has recently dropped his uniform and gone on AWOL because of the low morale in the Ghana Armed Forces, is a certain Colonel Brakatuo, who at the time of deserting, was the Director of Military Intelligence.
According to information gathered by the silhouetting under cover agents of The Ghanaian Lens, Col Brakatuo, who was on peace keeping mission in Liberia, went on AWOL when he was due to return home after his tour of duty.
The said colonel, according to the paper’s sources, is currently in Sudan where he is working with the United Nations.
In the past, any case of AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave) was associated with the other ranks but today, countless number of officers are also going AWOL.
The Ghana Air Force, for example, is said to have lost over 15 well trained pilots in the last two years whilst the Army has lost countless sharp young officers (Captains and Majors) who out of frustration have chosen to drop their uniforms and look elsewhere for career opportunities.
Very senior military, whom The Ghanaian Lens spoke with for background information on condition of anonymity, could not recall any previous case of a very senior officer, and for that matter a Director of Military Intelligence, ever going AWOL in the history of the Ghana Armed Forces.
There is no denying the fact that it is extremely dangerous for the country to be losing some of its core military personnel the way we are losing them under the watch of Kwame Addo Kufuor and the NPP government of his senior brother. Asked why an officer holding such a very sensitive position as a Director of Military Intelligence would go AWOL, one of the paper’s contacts said that the man left because he was not being allowed to function effectively.
“Why would the man not drop his uniform and look elsewhere for job satisfaction if the politicians are not only interfering with his work but frustrating and preventing him from doing what he was trained to do? I know the man and I know that he lost interest in the job for several reasons,” said the contact.
Indeed, this paper has information to the effect that a Captain (name withheld for now) who used to be an aide-de-camp to John Agyekum Kufuor, has also gone on AWOL and is now in New York.
The captain, according military sources, left town about a year ago under the guise of going on holidays and has since not returned.
Apparently, the young officer was frustrated at his inability to impress upon the president to get his brother to straighten his act as the Minister of Defence hence his decision to quit as he could not afford to stay in a profession that is being killed by a bunch of visionless politicians.
“We are not being given the needed logistics to work. Almost all our vehicles have broken down making it very difficult for us to operate and when we complain our commanders tell us that it is the minister who is refusing to release funds for the armed forces to be properly equipped,” said a Lance Corporal who has vowed that given the chance he would also go on AWOL.
A Warrant Officer (WO), who could not control his anger at the way discipline has broken down in the army, blamed the NPP for introducing a recruitment policy that is flooding the system with lots of NPP women.
The WO, who swears that he is not anti women, says that he thinks that the manner in which some indiscipline officers and politicians are dating some of these party female soldiers is affecting discipline as those party female soldiers brazenly refuse to do “extra duty” and go as far as using their high-up boyfriends to threaten male NCO’s (Non Commissioned Officer) who impose extra duties on them.
“One of the things affecting discipline and killing morale is the fact that party women soldiers, some of them being girlfriends of officers and politicians, refuse to conform to military discipline. How can you expect other soldiers to submit to discipline when they see that NCOs cannot bring erring female soldier to order?” the WO queried.
Confirming this, one Warrant Officer Class Two rhetorically asked “if officer dey chop private soldier, how WO go fit control am?”
The WO gave as a classic example the case of a Commanding Officer of one of the Ghanbatt’s (Ghana Battalion) to Congo DR who had his tour of duty cut short because he cracked the whip and disciplined a female Lance Corporal who was allegedly stealing ration meant for the Ghanbatt and selling it on the open market.
“As for the CDS, the Service Commanders and some of the senior officers, they have their brand new four wheel vehicles and are enjoying so they don’t seem able to tell the minister in the face that the army is dying slowly,” a senior NCO told The Ghanaian Lens.
The military sources that spoke to The Ghanaian Lens informed the paper that there seems to be a deliberate attempt at running the armed forces aground for reasons that nobody seems to be able to fathom.
Also, it is now an open secret that with morale of the armed forces at its lowest ebb since the days when market women used to pour urine on soldiers because the army officers had conspired to destroy the image of the force, soldiers are now in the business of collecting bribes.
It cannot be lost on us how the NPP government decided to make it a permanent feature for soldiers to be joining the police on night patrols and that is how the soldiers have gotten into the business of collecting bribes and begging drivers for money.
One of the paper’s reporters actually got stopped by soldiers around the Awudomme cemetery junction about a month ago and had to part with some money before he was left to go.
And according to the reporter, when he complained, the soldiers told him point blank that we are in a country where everybody has been left on his/her own to survive and so they have also decided to be in the business of harassing drivers to part with monies.
The Ghana Armed Forces is seriously going through torrid times and The Ghanaian Lens is going to keep its lenses glued to the military setup and give our readers salacious details about how the nation’s armed forces is crumbling whilst Kwame Addo Kufuor gets some crooked media personnel to portray him as the best minister the Defence Ministry Ghana has ever had.
Incidentally, Kwame Addo Kufuor is the only minister who has not tasted a change in his portfolio and it is not known whether it is the good job that he is doing destroying the armed forces that is making his senior brother continue to keep him there.
This is part one of goings-on in the Ghana Armed Forces so readers should stay glued to the second part and read about how Kwame Addo Kufuor has awarded 18 huge contracts this year alone and how he has been nicknamed “20%” by contractors who execute military contracts apparently because the Defence Minister is alleged to be in the business of collecting 20% kickback instead of the 10% that is known to pertain amongst conscienceless government operatives.
Source:
Lens
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