The National Service Secretariat took the decision to sack all last-minute recruits engaged by its former Director Dr Michael Kpessah-Whyte on the advice and approval of Education Minister Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, Ussif Mustapha, Acting Director of the NSS has said.

On Wednesday, 8 February, Mr Mustapha issued a letter directing all the last-minute recruits numbering 205 to go home.

However, there have been concerns that his action could be illegal since it was the mandate of the board of the NSS to have done so. The NSS has no board at the moment.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Ussif said: “The secretariat has not constituted a board yet, we have no properly constituted board. It is true that ordinarily the board should have been consulted but because we have no board … I took this decision based on the advice of the Minister of Education.”

“I sought approval from the minister of education and the approval was granted,” he emphasised in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM.

Meanwhile, Dr Kpessah-Whyte has told the affected persons to seek redress in court over the development.

“I will advise that all those individuals should not just take the decision as it is…If they have been written to individually then they should consult their lawyers and see what legal remedies are available to them. … They have more than a case because when you have gone through all the processes by the Public Services Commission itself, as required by the constitution …and because some party wins power and uses some ‘patapaa’ way of getting them out of the place, are they also not Ghanaians? The legal system has more than what it takes to resolve this matter amicably,” he told Emefa Apawu on Class91.3FM’s 505 on Wednesday.