Fake Ghana Cards: NIA Suspects Sabotage

Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority, Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, has condemned attempts to mar his credibility by some persons suggesting he is behind the manufacturing and circulation of fake Ghana cards.

Prof. Attafuah said the accusations lack basis stressing that a person of his caliber will not engage in anything that will undermine the integrity of the government’s efforts to create a reliable national database.

“I am too decent, I’m too far above such pettiness. It won’t enter my cranium to engage in such an activity,” the NIA head stated on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM Monday.

Images of Ghana cards bearing names and bio data of some opposition National Democratic Congress parliamentarians flooded social media platforms, generating accusations of double standards on the part of the minority MPs after they refused to have their data captured by NIA officials.

The cards later turned out to be fake after some of the persons whose names and images appeared on them, publicly denied participating in any registration exercise supervised by the NIA for the issuance of the Ghana card. The NIA itself also issued a statement urging the public to disregard any such cards.

Read: Disregard pictures of Minority MPs’ “fake” Ghana cards – NIA

Legal battle
The NDC MPs have maintained they will only participate in the ongoing registration and issuance process if the NIA agrees to add voters ID card to its list of required documents to be produced by the citizenry.

Civil society group, Strategic Thinkers Network Africa, has sued the NIA over the decision to exclude the voters ID as proof of citizenship in their bid to register Ghanaians.The group is seeking clarity from the Supreme Court, a true interpretation of what constitutes proof of citizenship.

Read: NIA sued over Voter ID exclusion in Ghana Card registration

Some persons are calling for the dismissal of Prof. Attafuah for failing to protect the data of persons captured in the ongoing exercise. Others also suggest the NIA head could be the source of the fake Ghana cards to suggest that the minority MPs secretly participated in the registration after they publicly kicked against it.

But the licensed criminologist wondered why anyone in good conscience will attribute such criminality to him.

“This is despicable. This is the height of undermining the very foundation of what it is that we are trying to create: a dependable, credible national data register,” he told the show's host, Daniel Dadzie.

“…I was quite frankly shocked and some have used it as the basis to call for my dismissal or my removal or my resignation and all of that,” he added.

“In any event, there is no reason to consider that this could not also be done by somebody in order to tarnishan image or a reputation and to have us tagged.”

None of the minority MPs, he said, has availed themselves to have their data captured since the exercise started and urged the public to ignore anything as such. “From my checks, no one authorised by the NIA to take photographs has taken any photographs of the officers [MPs] concerned,” he stated.

Prof. Attafuah said investigations to identify the source of the fake cards have commenced and hinted of reporting the matter to the state investigating authorities afterwards.

“We will do all that is reasonably necessary to ensure that the right thing is done…I assure further that data that will come into the system of NIA will be protected,” he pledged.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Jerry Tsatro Mordy | Email: [email protected] | Twitter:@jerrymordy