The National Identification Authority (NIA) has refuted claims by the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, that it issued dual ID cards with different dates of Birth to Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng, a member of the National Cathedral Board of Trustees.
Mr. Ablakwa had alleged that the NIA fraudulently issued a Ghana Card to the popular prophet, Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng who is also known as Kwabena Adu Gyamfi.
In a Facebook post last Monday, the North Tongu MP who has become a social media freak, claimed Rev. Victor Kusi Boateng presented himself at NIA premises but was issued a Ghana Card bearing the name Kwabena Adu Gyamfi, with a different date of birth.
However, in a highly comprehensive statement, the NIA described the claims by the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP as baseless, without merit and called on Ghanaians to completely ignore the allegations.
According to the NIA, there is no record of Rev. Kusi Boateng in its database as claimed by Mr Ablakwa.
It added that one of its registration centres in Kumasi duly issued an identity card to Kwabena Adu Gyamfi after he presented all the necessary documents, insisting no ID card has been issued bearing the name Victor Kusi Boateng.
Kwabena Adu Gyamfi, the Authority said, submitted himself during the mass registration exercise at an NIA registration centre 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”, the statement pointed out.
It explained that NIA 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, the statement 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.
“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”, it stressed.
The statement emphasised that there is no record of anyone bearing the name Victor Kusi Boateng in National Identity Register (NIR) of the NIA 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 Centre 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 pointed out.
Call for probe
The NIA noted that the call by Mr. Ablakwa 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, provided 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.
The NIA argued that the North Tongu MP did not provide any records of Victor Kusi Boateng from its 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 insisted that Mr. Ablakwa could not have conducted any comparative analysis of that non-existent data with that of Kwabena Adu Gyamfi.
Aisha Huang affair
The NIA slammed Ablakwa for invoking the Aisha Huang saga 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 spectra 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 NIA reiterated.
It stressed that the allegations by Mr. Ablakwa are without merit and urged him to respect state institutions doing their best to build the nation.
