The Ministry of Defence has no hand in the selection of soldiers for courses according to a statement issued in Accra by the Ministry.

The statement was in reaction to a story carried by the Ghanaian Democrat in its November 26-28 edition, headlined: "Military officers being denied courses abroad." It explained that the selection of officers and men for courses either local or overseas was based on merit. "

The Armed Forces is offered a number of vacancies by sister and allied countries and the Command has the prerogative of selecting, which courses to accept, based on the level of relevance to the Armed Forces.

"Such courses are compiled by the Directorate of Training and submitted to the Service Headquarters-Army, Navy and Air Force as the case may be."

The Services nominate candidates based on Merit, Nature of Course, relevant unit (artillery, engineering, medical or logistics) and relevance of course to the Armed Forces.

It noted that the Armed Forces had been sending officers and men on courses for several years and that there had never been the situation where the selection of the candidates had been based on ethnic bias as quoted by the paper.

The paper had alleged that while foreign courses were being put on hold, "soldiers from the NPP government's ethnic preference group" were being sent out on courses secretly to prepare them for strategic positions in the Armed Forces.

The statement noted that there was no iota of truth in the alleviation that some officers course were being recalled from the United States and the United Kingdom and challenged the paper to provide the particulars of such officers for action to be taken.

Similarly it asked the paper to provide the Ministry with the list of Medical Officers and Para-medics that have been denied their legitimate rights to attend courses overseas.