NIA counters Ablakwa’s claims

The National Identification Authority (NIA) has countered allegations of Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa on the Kusi Boateng/Adu Gyamfi Ghana Card saga and insists the assertions are without merit or foundation and should be ignored.

The insinuations and castigations, the NIA insists, will not change its resolve to remain focused, rigorous and coherent in fulfilling its statutory mandate.

Responding to the North Tongu MP’s recent escapades and the alleged fraudulent and mysterious registration and issuance of Ghana Card, the Authority indicated it is required by law to register applicants onto the NIA database, properly called the National Identity Register (NIR), based on information supplied by applicants as provided for by Section 8(1) of the National Identity Register (Amendment) Act, 2017 (Act 950), which include birth certificate; a valid passport; a valid residence permit; a valid certificate of acquired citizenship; and any other information as may be required by the Authority.

Registration officials, it said, are bound to register and issue a Ghana Card to an applicant who presents any of these documents unless on the face of the record or based on information gathered from the interview process, there is a reasonable basis to suspect fraud.

Kwabena Adu Gyamfi, the Authority said, submitted himself during the mass registration exercise at an NIA registration center called Vicandy School at Asuoyeboah in Kumasi on 15th January 2020 to register for the Ghana Card.

“He submitted to NIA registration officials a valid Ghanaian passport issued by the Passport Office on 16th May 2018, with the name Kwabena Adu Gyamfi; the expiry date in the said passport is 15th May 2023.”

“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 NIA indicated it has no record of anyone bearing the name Victor Kusi Boateng in the NIR or any person born on 7th September 1971 or any other day with the name Victor Kusi Boateng.

“In these circumstances, NIA registration officials at the Vicandy School Registration Center did everything right, and absolutely nothing wrong; they could not reasonably have been expected to know that Kwabena Adu Gyamfi also apparently bore the name Rev.
Victor Kusi Boateng as Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa claims.”

“A popular name may not be a person’s real or official name, and this is rather trite or commonplace,” the statement said.

The NIA argued the call by Hon. Okudzeto for investigation in some monetary transactions by Rev. Kusi Boateng may be legitimate but is not related to the work of the Authority.

The MP, it said, provides the application details of only Kwabena Adu Gyamfi, with 30th December 1969 as his date of birth, but not those of Victor Kusi Boateng, with 7th September 1971 as his date of birth.

Hon. Ablakwa, it indicated, does not provide any records of Victor Kusi Boateng from the NIA database because none exists and the claim that his “rare and comprehensive analysis of the NIA database” discloses that “the biometrics … of Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng matches that of Kwabena Adu Gyamfi” are not true.

The Authority insists the claim is false because there is no biometric record of any person in the NIA database called Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng and, therefore, Hon. Ablakwa could not have conducted any comparative analysis of that non-existent data with that of Kwabena Adu Gyamfi.”

The NIA slammed Ablakwa for invoking the Aisha Huang affair and argued there was nothing embarrassing about its handling of the Chinese national’s affairs.

According to the NIA, there was everything celebratory about its handling of Aisha Huang’s attempted fraudulent registration for the Ghana Card as it was the vigilance of its personnel and the robustness of its technical system that resulted in her exposure.

It disclosed that the NIR does not contain any record of a person named Aisha Huang, a point that was made abundantly clear when the “Aisha Huang Story” broke and therefore raising the spectre of the dead Aisha Huang non-story is both unnecessary and disingenuous.

“NIA’s verification system 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 passports. NIA deserves commendation, not condemnation,” the statement said.

The Authority stressed the allegations by Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa are without merit and urged him to respect state institutions doing their best to build the nation.