Birth and Death Registry ought to be overhauled – Patrick Boamah

The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, Patrick Boamah says the ease at which notorious Nigerian kidnapper, Chukwudidumeme Onwuamadike alias Evans acquired a Ghanaian passport exposes the laxity in operations by the Birth and Death Registry.

According to the Committee, preliminary investigations into how the famous Kidnapper obtained the passport shows the gross inefficiencies of the department.

“We are not apportioning blame but we feel the Birth and Death registry has to be overhauled because we saw that it was the weakest link in the passport acquisition process,” Mr Boamah told Accra-based Citi FM.

For him, a genuine birth certificate is the primary document in the passport acquisition process and once nobody raised an alarm over the said birth certificate,then the Registry ought to be blamed for the lapses.

The notorious Nigerian billionaire kidnapper did not only fraudulently secure a Ghanaian passport for himself alone, but he also acquired one for the wife and two of his children.

Chukwudidumeme Onwuamadike alias Evans was issued with a Ghanaian passport this year under a fake name, Asare Nelson in Accra.

He was arrested on June 10 at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport while exiting Nigeria and the Ghanaian passport was found on him during a search.