Members of the Defense and Interior Committee of Parliament have sympathized with victims of yesterday’s Military recruitment stampede in Accra that claimed six lives and injured several others.
“This morning the Committee for Defense and Interior paid a visit to the 37 Military Hospital to see for ourselves the level of injury sustained by the victims of yesterday’s tragedy at the Elwak Stadium”, the Chairman of the Committee, James Agalga stated when they visited the victims on Thursday, November 13, 2025.
The Committee’s visit follows a directive from the Speaker, Alban Bagbin, to the committee to embark on the visit and propose recommendations for the way forward after two statements were made on the floor of the House on Wednesday, and the Caretaker Minister, Cassiel Ato Forson, also made an official statement on the matter in parliament.
“So we are here in pursuit of the Speaker’s directive that the Committee takes steps, looks into the matter, the tragedy, whether it’s in the form of a probe, an investigation, or whate, ve,r that is a decision the Committee will take. But in the meantime, we are aware that the armed forces have instituted a board of inquiry to establish what may have happened.” The Chairman has stated that the Committee was not going to hold simultaneous investigations because of the consequences of such an approach.
He assured the victims of parliament’s support, stating “These are young, strong people who are yearning to serve in our armed forces.
If you are not patriotic, you will not want to serve in the armed forces, because I recently returned from Nigeria, and I witnessed the vetting of the service chiefs. One of them made a very profound remark. He said, “It takes a touch of madness for one to become a soldier because you and I, when we see danger, we retreat.”
That is natural, isn’t it? But for them, they are trained to confront danger. That is how serious it is for somebody to decide to become a soldier.
Unfortunately, this incident happened.”
Meanwhile, the Ranking on the committee, Rev. John Ntim Fordj, our called on the public to avoid politicizing the issue.
“We approach this matter not with partisan considerations, but with a national interest. This is not a time for politics. So, I would urge that everyone refrain from politicizing this rather unfortunate matter. We will look into it objectively and offer our constructive recommendations on the way forward.
We are appealing that in the best interest of safeguarding lives of potential recruits, all nation-wide recruitment exercises be put to a halt and suspended for the time being, not just at Elwak, all nation-wide recruitment processes must be halted so that a very good job can be done in probing, in reviewing, performing, and then when we put in very optimal measures we can recommence the process.”
Reverend Ntim Fordjour also calls for adequate compensation for the affected persons including families of the deceased.
“Another appeal that we would want to convey to the government is to look at how some adequate
compensation could be provided for our brave potential soldiers who have lost their lives for their families. For those who are wounded, we hope that when they recover, those who will still be medically fit as per Ghana Armed Forces requirements for recruitment they will be prioritized.
For those who, for one reason or another, may not be fit to enter, some consideration is provided for their relatives to replace them who are fit, or some compensations are granted. But we will support the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence so that we are putting the right measures to restore what has occurred so that we do not have this happening again.”
