.... Rapid Force Personnel Cry Out
Accra, Lens --Members of the Rapid Force have dared the faceless "source close to the National Security Council" who claims that they were "only recommended for casual jobs" to come out and tell the whole country what kind of casual jobs they were recommended for, and if those "casual jobs" involve the use of firearms.

They also want the Daily Guide's ubiquitous "source close to the National Security Council" to tell the whole nation how come they were issued with brand new AK-47 rifles and ammunitions that they carried with them on various assignments across the length and breadth of this country, and how come they were housed in a government bungalow at Ridge close to the residence of President Rawlings.

The members of the Rapid Force revealed that even though they were never given any formal letters of employment or any form of identity cards, they were issued with brand-new AK-47 rifles for the two years that they worked with the National Security at Castle Annexe.

Speaking to The Lens, representatives of the group said that at a certain point they came to the realization that in view of the general paranoia in the country about coup-plots and allegations of people procuring rebels to come and destabilise the country, they decided that the time had come for the authorities to regularise their appointment because they did not want any of them to be gunned down one day on to make it appear that rebels had come into the country.

According to them, their apprehensions were heightened by the fact that the weapons that were issued to them were brand new which, to the best of their knowledge, are not documented in any record.

"These things made some of us realise that if, may God forbid, we were to be gunned down as people who were coming to destabilise the country, there is no way the Ghanaian people would not believe that story. So we started agitating for letters of appointment to be issued to all of us, as well as improvement in our salary," a spokesman for the group recounted.

He continued, "just because we started asking for these things, they threw us out of the bungalow that was allotted us and told us that they have no more use for us. Some of our people were later sent to AMA but even the AMA has told them to go as there is nothing for them to do there."

"We feel that we have been exploited and used, and even though we have petitioned the President, we are yet to get any response from that quarter. Why are we not Ghanaians? We are being treated as second-rate citizens in our own country," they lamented.

It would be recalled that on 13th October 2004, your authoritative Lens published, under the heading Trouble Looms At Castle Annexe, that the entire membership of the Rapid Force, a pivotal unit of 58 personnel under the Security Council secretariat at the Castle Annex is up in arms against the dehumanising conditions of work they have to contend with, in the face of the huge sums of money that are being used to orchestrate non-existing mercenary invasion schemes.

After working assiduously with the National Security Council since November 2002 and receiving an amount of ?300,000 a month, even that payment has mysteriously ceased for over three months now.

The Personnel of the Rapid Force have performed critical duties in Escort and Intelligence operations in addition to General duties given to them to perform. Some of the places they have been assigned to be: Tema Ports CEPS Long Room, The Ministry of Finance And All-Ship warehouse under the offices of Finance and Agric Bank at Tema, Lands Commission and Currently the Revenue sector at the metropolis.

In spite of all these critical functions being performed by the personnel of the unit, even the meagre ?300,000 a month owed them cannot be paid by an outfit that is reported to be spending millions of dollars in all kinds of Anti NDC operations.

The Kufuor regime has been spending millions of cedis of the tax payer's money, lavishly splashing and throwing such monies around the various constituencies in a desperate effort to remain in power. Meanwhile, the government does not seem to have the presence of mind and the conscientiousness to pay hardworking people, such as the personnel of the Rapid Force, the little that is due them.