The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has cautioned that it will arrest anyone who is not an applicant but attempts to enter recruitment centres when the suspended exercise resumes in the Greater Accra Region on Thursday, November 20, 2025.

The warning comes ahead of the resumption of the recruitment process, which was halted after a stampede at the El-Wak Sports Stadium on Wednesday, November 12, claimed six lives.

Speaking on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News on Monday, November 17, Director-General of Public Affairs, Captain Veronica Adzo Arhin, said strict measures have been put in place to prevent overcrowding and maintain discipline at all centres.

“If you are a non-applicant, we appeal to the public not to try coming here. We will not allow you in. If it becomes necessary to arrest you and hand you over to the police, we will do so. So we request that the public not accompany applicants,” she warned.

She added that military police personnel will be deployed to ensure that only legitimate applicants gain entry.

“We have beefed up our numbers. Even if you are an applicant and you come at the wrong time, I am sure that could even lead to your disqualification,” she warned.

Captain Arhin said the GAF is still trying to understand what triggered last week’s deadly incident, especially since this year’s recruitment has been decentralised across all 16 regions.

“For the first time this year, it has been decentralised to all 16 regions. So we are still at a loss as to what led to the stampede. We have had large numbers before, just like this one, but there has always been some orderliness,” she explained.

She added that the military will wait for the findings of the Board of Inquiry before drawing conclusions.

“I wouldn’t want to pre-empt the findings, so I would rather hold on until the report comes out, so we can tell what really went wrong. We have always been doing this, and everything used to be at El-Wak,” she added.