The National Identification Authority (NIA) has disclosed that the Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, did not provide any records of Victor Kusi Boateng from the NIA database,because none exists.
In a statement signed by the Corporate Affairs Directorate, the NIA said that Ablakwa did not present any empirical evidence about the biometrics of Victor Kusi Boateng, since there is none and, if there is, it was not taken from the NIA database.
The NIA issued the statement yesterday to respond to Mr. Ablakwa’s post on his Facebook page, requesting that NIA provided an explanation about how Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng, member of the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral came to possess an NIA card, bearing the name Kwabena Adu Gyamfi.
According to the NIA, Mr. Ablakwa only gave the application information for Kwabena Adu Gyamfi, who was born on December 30, 1969 and left out the information for Victor Kusi Boateng, who was born on September 7, 1971.
Furthermore, NIA added that the MP’s claim that “rare and comprehensive analysis of the NIA database,” discloses that “the biometrics … of Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng matches that of Kwabena Adu Gyamfi,” is hollow.
The NIA has also denied this assertion,stating that there is no record of a person by the name of Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng in the NIA database. As a result, Mr. Ablakwa did not compare his work to that of Kwabena Adu Gyamfi.
The NIA stated that its outfit is required by law to register applicants onto the NIA database, properly called the National Identity Register (NIR), based on the information supplied by applicants.
Per Section 8(1) of the National Identification Register Act, the Authority requires an individual who applies for an entry to be made in the Register to submit any of the following identity documents, “a birth certificate, valid passport, valid residence permit, valid certificate of acquired citizenship and any other information, as may be required by the Authority.
According to the NIA, their registration officials are bound to register and issue a Ghana Card to an applicant who presents any of the documents specified above, unless on the face of the record or based on information gathered from the interview process, there is a reasonable basis to suspect fraud.
This, he said, there is nothing mysterious about Kwabena Adu Gyamfi being issued with a Ghana Card as such, even though Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa knows Kwabena Adu Gyamfi as Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng as well.
“NIA registration officials registered Kwabena Adu Gyamfi using his valid passport as the base identity document for his registration, and duly issued him with a Ghana Card,” the statement made known.
The NIA stressed that the legitimacy of the entire registration process is completely unharmed on this point.
The Authority said that since 2017, their organization has performed a nationwide identification exercise with steadfast resolve and focus, yielding the collection of biometric and alpha-numeric data on more than 17.3 million Ghanaians and eligible foreigners in Ghana.
Also, it added that the NIA in addition to its register, the NIA and its technical partner, Identity Management Systems II Limited (IMS II), have built a credible and robust National Identification System (NIS).
The NIA in this regard made reference to the handling of the Aisha Huang’s case, says its outfit professionals handled Aisha Huang’s attempted fraudulent registration for the Ghana Card, in that it was the vigilance of its personnel and the robustness of its technical system that resulted in her exposure.
The NIA system, it said, functioned as designed to enable NIA prevent En Huang (the so-called Aisha Huang) from registering under a new name and date of birth for a new Non-Citizen Ghana Card, despite her being in possession of two different Chinese passport.
Background
Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa has for the past weeks been on the neck of the NIA over why the Secretary to the Board of Trustees of the National Cathedral, Rev Victor Kusi Boateng, got an NIA card with the name Kwabena AduGyamfi.
Last week, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa disclosed that he had acquired Kusi Boateng’s Ghana Card in addition to other information that he had previously publicised, including his two separate passports and driver’s license.
On the January 27 episode of the program, he gave an update on the situation and said that the card he had seen did not have the name Victor Kusi Boateng, as is commonly believed, but he did not say if it bore the name Kwabena Adu Gyamfi.
