GAF Recruitment Resumes in Accra, Cooling Fans Set Up at El Wak To Keep Applicants Comfortable
- A notable change effected during the ongoing Ghana Armed Forces 2025/2026 recruitment exercise has gone viral
- This comes as cooling fans were installed at the venue to ensure that applicants don't suffer discomfort from the heat during the vetting process
- Social media users who took to the comments section of the video have shared varied opinions on the new move
The Ghana Armed Forces is doing its best to ensure that applicants feel comfortable at the various recruitment centres after resuming its 2025/2026 recruitment exercise in the Greater Accra Region, following a suspension due to the fatal El Wak stampede.
As the recruitment exercise resumed early on Thursday, November 20, 2025, measures have been put in place to ensure applicants proceed through the process seamlessly.
Source: TikTok
As part of enhanced safety protocols, the Ghana Armed Forces has provided seats for applicants at the El Wak Stadium who are now required to remain seated while waiting to be screened.
A new video on the TikTok page of @ghbrain, which is now making the rounds online, showed the moment cooling fans were brought to the venue to help improve the comfort of applicants.
The 25-second video showed some military personnel unloading the cooling fans from the back of a pickup truck.
Some prospective applicants were also seen taking turns to undergo the necessary screening process at the venue.
About GAF's enhanced safety protocols after tragedy
In a statement by the Ghana Armed Forces, the screening process will now take place across eight sub-centres within five key locations in the region.
These locations include El-Wak Stadium – 2 centres, Nicholson Park, Burma Camp – 2 centres, Air Force Base, Burma Camp, Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), Teshie – 2 centres and the Eastern Naval Command, Tema.
Relatives of applicants have meanwhile been notified that they will not be allowed at the screening centres to reduce congestion, and that non-applicants will be denied entry.
This intervention comes on the backdrop of the tragic stampede on November 12, which led to the deaths of six people and injuries to over 20.
At the time, twelve people were in critical condition, while five received treatment in the Intensive Care Unit. A separate recruitment exercise in Kumasi also recorded five injuries.
GAF failed in its mandate to protect lives
A security expert, Yakub Alfa Suleiman of the Journalists Network for Peace and Security (JNePS), in a comment to YEN, reflected on the decision to make reforms to the recruitment process, saying the Ghana Armed Forces failed in their core duty, which is protecting lives.
"In the management and protection of lives, the security services stand as an authority. It is unfortunate to say that a whole security service failed on such a task"
The video, at the time of writing this report, had raked in over 2,000 likes and 30 comments.
Watch the video below:
Reactions to revised GAF recruitment safety protocols
Social media users who took to the comments section of the video have shared their views on the resumption of the recruitment process.
ManuelHopkins wrote:
"Hmm, unless people are told, the right things are not done. A recruit is like your child. How you make your child feel safe, do the same for them. Kudos."
Asare Christiana opined:
"So must people always die before measures are put in place?"
Venia added:
"How do you expect the victims’ families to feel when they see this? Y’all could have put these measures in place earlier."
Richard Obeng wrote:
"We all learn from our mistakes. The money collected, this is what you should have used some of it for. Change is accepted."
Vice President Naana Agyemang visits El-Wak victims
Earlier, YEN.com.gh reported that the Vice President, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, visited the victims of the El-Wak stampede who are receiving treatment at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra.
She was accompanied by the Deputy Minister for Defence, Brogya Gyemfi, the Chief of Defence Staff, Major General William Agyapong, and staff from her office to check on the well-being of the injured persons.
Proofreading by Samuel Gitonga, copy editor at YEN.com.gh.
Source: YEN.com.gh
