Coronavirus: Stop Ghana card mass registration now – NDC

The Eastern Regional Organizer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Hackman Kabore is calling on the National Identification Authority (NIA) to stop the mass registration exercise in the Eastern region in order to protect applicants from the spread of coronavirus.

According to him, the continuation of the registration exercise is a slap in the face of the directive issued by President Akufo-Addo which suspended all public gatherings with numbers above 25.

Speaking to Starr News, Hackman Kabore said though the NIA has issued directives to Its field officials to observe some safety protocols, many of the registration centers are overcrowded due to the inability of the officials to control applicants who trooped to the center.

The Regional Organizer said it is therefore important for the President to bring the Authority to order “the NIA must be ordered by the President to stop risking the lives of people in the Eastern region. We have observed that the centers are still crowded, no hand sanitizers and no hand washing facilities available for people who go there”

‘We the NDC have suspended parliamentary primaries in five constituencies left that were supposed to be held due to the directives by the President and our leader John Mahama. If NIA continues to register it will be a bad precedent. The very church buildings he ordered to close to the public are the same buildings opened for registration exercise what kind of logic is this,” Hackman Kabore fumed.

Meanwhile, many of the applicants of the mass registration exercise being conducted in the Eastern Region by the National Identification Authority want the exercise suspended until all safety protocols to prevent possible infection of coronavirus are adhered to.

Though the National Identification Authority, on Monday, March 16, 2020 directed all Supervising Registration Officers (SROs) to allow only twenty-five(25) persons including its officials at a registration center in a given time, Starr News observation in most of the centers in the region indicate that the directive is not being adhered too.

Again, there are no hand washing facilities and sanitizers available for both applicants and registration officials to use exposing them to high risk of being infected.

Ghana has recorded six cases of the coronavirus within a week.

As a result, Ghana’s President after an emergency stakeholder meeting on Sunday, March 15, announced a suspension of all public gatherings including conferences, funerals, church activities for four weeks.

Also, all Universities, schools, etc have been closed since March 16, 2020.