Reliable information available to the Daily Searchlight indicates that very senior officers in the military have allegedly turned the physical training exercise which makes it mandatory for officers of the Ghana Army to be selected for peacekeeping operations, into a goldmine from which they excavate several thousands of Ghana Cedis.
Soldiers due to peacekeeping operations are required to partake in what is known as Basic Fitness Test (BFT) which involves physical training exercises such push - ups, sit-ups and in addition run a distance of 3.2 kilometers run in a time of seventeen (17) minutes at the Bondase Military Camp.
A source hinted this paper that soldiers who don't make the mark are failed outright without being given a second chance to make amends but sadly their senior's nicodemously negotiates with other younger soldiers and take between fifty and sixty thousand Ghana cedis from them to enable them go.
"Imagine a 50 year old WO who is expected to run a seventeen minutes, my brother how can it be possible," one of the soldiers lamented.
According to some of the officers, it is the desire of most soldiers to go on peace support operations in order to improve upon their economic circumstances, but what their superiors are doing to them can only be described as inhumane and sad, because the need they dollars to care for their families and also to undertake various projects.
It will be recalled that the President of the Republic Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, announced an increase in the allowances of Ghanaian peacekeepers form US$31 to US$35, effective January 2017, in fulfillment of a manifesto pledge of the New Patriotic Party in the run-up to the December 2016 election.
This is in fulfillment of the NPP's pledge of improving the welfare of the Armed Forces. According to the soldiers although they know that fitness is very important in their scope of work, the stake are too high and a swift and immediate action needs to be taken.
Most Soldiers have been diagnosed iof hypertension over the tedious training they are taken through so the mere mention of Bondase Military Camp send shives down their spine; this according to some soldiers was the reason behind the death of five of their colleagues last year.
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