The Speaker of Parliament Prof. Mike Oquaye has gone through the process of registration for the Ghana Card.
It took the Speaker less than thirty minutes to go through the process. The National Identification Authority has been undertaking the registration in Parliament for close to two weeks now.
The Minority true to their initial threat has so far boycotted the entire process.
Officials are expected to wrap up the exercise later today and leave parliament. It is unclear if the leadership of parliament will seek an extension of the time.
The Progressive People’s Party (PPP), has also criticized the Minority’s decision to boycott the Ghana card registration process, saying the party is being disingenuous.
The PPP’s Policy Director Kofi Asamoah Siaw, said the NDC appears to believe that without the use of the voter ID cards, they may be disadvantaged politically hence their protest.
The party said the NDC is sabotaging the registration process, considering that they have had sufficient time to correct whatever wrong there was with the process before now.
The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) branch in Ashaiman in the Greater Accra Region, has vowed to cause the arrest of some key National Democratic Congress (NDC) officials who threatened to beat up National Identification Authority officials.
The NDC executives in Ashaiman, led by their chairman, Shadad Umar Jallo, last week threatened to disrupt the registration process in Ashaiman unless the registration requirements are updated.
Speaking to Citi News however, the Ashaiman NPP Communications Director, Joseph Ottuin, said they will ensure that the right things are done.
Unreasonable contentions
The Minority has notably said over 20 million Ghanaians were set to be “denationalised” by the registration process.
The fear is that majority of Ghanaians do not have access to a birth certificate or a passport.
“How can a government that want to formalize an economy want to alienate a majority of the economy,” he retorted.
He also said the LI backing the registration process provides the informal alternative of having a relative or two other acquaintances vouch for one’s nationality under oath.
The NIA is training over 2,000 commissioners in this regard to overseeing such processes.
Ultimately, Dr. Oko Boye said the Minority was simply trying “to discourage people from giving support [to the process].”
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Source: Citinewsroom.com/Ghana
