Ghana card: NPP illegally registering members at Keneshie – NDC

The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is accusing the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) of engaging in illegal Ghana card registration for its members.

The allegation follows the arrest of the National Identification Authority (NIA) official by the Kaneshie police for registering people at night.

Addressing the media Wednesday on the development, the Deputy NDC General Secretary, Peter Boamah Otokunor alleged the said illegal exercise was being undertaken at the house of a known NPP member called Gifty Boateng.

Mr Otokunor has therefore implored NDC members and the general public to be vigilante and effect citizen’s arrest of such NIA officers who attempt circumventing the process.

“Now we are being ushered into a new realm, a new realm of Akufo-Addo superintended irregularities where the NIA’s ongoing registration exercise has been hit with massive fraud, irregularities and wanton abuse of the process,” he said.

Mr Otokunor went further to state: “We were of the considered view that the implementation of the provisions of the Act (National Identity register Act 950) will deny the vast majority of the population the opportunity to acquire the Ghana card. Due to the limitations imposed on the ordinary Ghanaian who obviously by no fault of theirs do not have a birth certificate, passports and other rather scarce identification documents, they are going to be denied this all-important opportunity of having an identification document that will classify them as Ghanaians.

“We emphasised…in a press release on 29th April 2019 that the exercise will not promote the stability of the state as it will only seek to make some Ghanaians become more Ghanaians done others which will be in direct contravention of the 1992 constitution.

“We have particularly raised strong concerns about the exclusion of the voter ID card as a primary identification material for the registration. This we believe will invariably disable and deny millions of Ghanaians the opportunity to register and acquire a Ghana Card.”