Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul has rubbished claims that military personnel deployed to Mepe in the Volta Region following the spillage of the Akosmobo Dam were ordered to withdraw their services.
According to him, the soldiers had to leave to other communities around Battor and its environs which were also in dire need of support.
Speaking on the Super Morning Show, the Defence Minister dismissed the report by explaining that inadequate equipment forced the Armed Forces to redeploy its personnel
“It is not something that we should shy away, we cannot put out the figures but if they had all the resources, or as much resources as would be needed for a country like Ghana like by now we will not be having this conversation because they would have put four or five boats at Mepe, four or five boats at Battor, four or five boats at Sogakope, four or five boats at Asuogyaman, four or five boats at the other areas. But they don’t have that type of resources.
“So the little they have, when they serve you, then they move to other areas and serve them as well and move to another area to serve them.
“I just want the people of Ghana to know that there was no decision from either above or below that they should withdraw the military completely from the area. None at all,” he added.
This assertion follows public backlash after viral reports and social media posts suggested that the soldiers deployed to the area for humanitarian relief operations had been withdrawn, upon an order from a higher authority.
The reports were also corroborated by the Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who was in the area at the time to support the relief efforts.
The MP in a post on X, formerly Twitter, questioned if the people of the area were second class citizens to be treated in that manner.
But the Ghana Armed Forces in a statement issued on Sunday, October 22, and signed by its Director General in charge of Public Relations, M.A Larbi Naval Captain said the information in circulation was “inaccurate.”
“The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) wishes to debunk some media reports and series of social media posts especially on Twitter (X), claiming that military personnel deployed to Mepe in Volta Region for Humanitarian Relief Operations following the spillage of the Akosombo Dam, have been withdrawn. GAF wishes to categorically state that the information in circulation is inaccurate and that the personnel have not been given any ‘orders from above’ to withdraw from Mepe or any other community affected by the spillage contrary to the social media posts” portions of the statement read.
According to GAF, the operations are only being carried out by its officers in phases, for which reason the team had to redirect attention to other communities because the situation at Mepe had been brought under “considerable control.”
Backing this stance, the Defence Minister stressed that the Ghana Armed Forces was in need of more resources to better equip it to handle such situations.
“I don’t want to put the resources of the Armed Forces out there publicly but I think that this is even a call for us to give them more resources.
“If they even had twenty, thirty or forty boats, the men are there. I don’t think they would have had any problem and this conversation wouldn’t have come up. But there are limitation to what they have,” he stressed.
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