The National Democratic Congress has expressed shock, over what it calls the Akufo-Addo led administration’s 'neck-deep' involvement in last night’s scandalous Ghana card registration by some NIA officials.
Some officials of the NIA were reportedly caught at a private residence in Awudome, near the St Theresa Catholic Church last night, May 7, 2019, registering some residents beyond the legal registration hours.
Addressing the media today, May 8, 2019, Deputy General Secretary of the NDC Peter Boamah Otokunor on behalf of the functional executive body of the party alleged that, the people who were caught in the middle of the scandalous act last night are members of the ruling NPP.
Mr. Otokunor based the NDC’s claims on facts it gathered that, the daughter of a presidential staffer, Mr. Victor Newman is the brain behind the NIA irregularities in the area.
He said, “The daughter of Victor Newman, (a presidential staffer and a close confidant of president Akufo-Addo) who is interested in contesting for the Okaikoi South parliamentary candidature, is behind this operation and has been acting through one Gifty Boateng who is the landlord of the house where the exercise was being undertaken.”
The NDC also reiterated their objection to the exclusion of the Voters ID card from the registration process.
To them, this is but a means for the NPP to “disenfranchise a lot of grassroots voters who constitute the bulk support base of the NDC.”
“The NDC remains completely opposed to this obnoxious tactics of the non-inclusion of the voter ID as a primary identification document for the registration.”
In a related development, two Nigerians were also caught trying to input their names in the ongoing NIA registration.
The NDC has, however, attributed the two instances to the NPP’s will of “increasing the numerical strength of NPP members who hold the Ghana card for purposes of registering as voters.”
Ghana card registration
The National Identification Authority (NIA) started the mass registration and Ghana Card issuance exercise in the Greater Accra Region from Monday, April 29, 2019, and expected to end on Saturday, July 6, 2019.
The region has been divided into two zones: Accra West and Accra East, where registration centres have been opened at specific locations.
The official working hours for the registration officers close at 5 pm.
