The National Identification Authority (NIA) has said in a statement that the Authority cannot go ahead with Ghana Card registration in spite of a court ruling in its favor because there’s a second injunction on the Eastern region exercise.
The court ruling on the NIA registration today was for the injunction application in respect of one of the cases to be moved. It was moved and the Court refused it on grounds among others that there is no basis to restrain the NIA.
However, another injunction by Justice Daniel Mensah earlier this week on the NIA registration in the eastern region still stands.
The registration exercise in the Eastern region is therefore suspended indefinitely until further notice.
The decision, according to the registration body, “takes into account the current trend in the spread of COVID-19 in Ghana since the suspension of the mass registration exercise on Saturday, 21st March 2020, following the service on the NIA of an interlocutory injunction application.”
The NIA welcomed the dismissal by the High Court of the interlocutory injunction application and the substantive suit. Nonetheless, NIA says it will continue to suspend its mass registration operations in the Eastern Region until further notice.
Two persons had filed an injunction application arguing that the registration exercise by the NIA was in breach of the President’s directives and a violation of their fundamental human rights.
Mr. Godfred Dame Yeboah, the Deputy Attorney General contended that the NIA had not violated the President’s ban on public gathering.
He held that the functions of the NIA were part of the class of services, businesses, and workplaces excluded by the ban imposed by the President’s directive, noting that applicants have no cause of action in respect of which an order of interlocutory injunction ought to be dismissed.
The National Identification Authority says it will continue to observe developments relating to the management of COVID-19 in Ghana and will determine, at the appropriate time, when and how to resume its mass registration operations.
