Flag bearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has urged residents along the borders of the country not to hand their national identification cards to any security official.
According to him, the Ghana Card can only be withdrawn with a certificate of withdrawal from the National Identification Authority (NIA), anything apart from such, he says, is illegal.
John Mahama’s comments come on the back of some immigration officials subjecting some residents closer to the Aflao border to harassment regarding their eligibility as Ghanaians, and got some assaulted in the process.
Speaking to supporters of the NDC at Gakli in Ketu South, the NDC’s flag bearer urged them to resist any attempt at giving out their cards to any security official.
This comes at the time the Electoral Commission’s exhibition of the voters’ register is ongoing, making him admonish the residents not to give in to anyone that challenges their citizenship.
“Nobody has a right to collect your Ghana Card, not immigration, not police, not anybody. So don’t surrender your national identification to anybody. It is the National Identification Authority that has the right to withdraw your card.
“Once it has been issued, if somebody thinks you’re not a citizen, he has to go to the National Identification Authority and get a certificate of withdrawal of your card before he can come and take your card from you. You cannot meet the person on the street and know whether he is Ghanaian or any other thing by his face.
“This is a territory of Ghana and anybody who lives here is Ghanaian. So that harassment must stop and we’ll make sure that it stop and we will make sure that it stops,” he stated.
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