ADVERTISEMENT

Ghana Card: ‘NIA officials are turning us away; help us’ – Fulanis cry to Samira

Some Fulanis in Northern Ghana have appealed to the Second Lady, Samira Bawumia, to come to their aid after they were allegedly turned away from registering for the Ghana Card.

NIA officials are turning us away over Ghana Card, help us – Fulanis cry to Samira

According to the Fulani community, officials of the National Identification Authority (NIA) are refusing to register them overs claims that they are not Ghanaians.

They are therefore appealing to the Second Lady, who is also a Fulani, to speak on their behalf so that they can get registered.

General Secretary of the Fulani Welfare Group, Alhaji Musah Yakubu Bari, said he cannot understand why his compatriots will be turned away from registering for the Ghana Card when Fulani’s have lived in the country for several decades.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Our Fulanis who have lived here for over seventy years, eighty years are being denied. This is a valid birth certificate, a valid passport of somebody and they're being denied the National Identification Card. I don't know why,” he lamented on Joy FM.

“Our forefathers were here long before independence, long before the Constitution. Then they should go and collect Samira's card. If Samira [Bawumia] has a card and I'm being denied, it hurts. So, we're calling on the office of the second lady; she should come out and speak about this issue.”

The mass registration and issuance of the Ghana Card began in the Greater Accra Region in April.

The exercise will last until July 6, 2019, before being moved to other parts of the country.

Also narrating his ordeal, another Fulani man, Hamid Abukari, said he went to one of the centres to vouch for his brother Umaro Abukari, but was denied.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I came with my brother Umaro for him to register for the Ghana card. He has a birth certificate and a passport and I also have the same requirements including a Ghana Card which I acquired since December at Madina. So, I came to guarantee for him because I have been seeing it as the requirement,” Hamid disclosed.

“But when I came, I was told I am a Fulani and all Fulanis are not Ghanaians and they confiscated my card and detained me and said they were calling the police to arrest me because I acquired it through illegal means.”

Meanwhile, the Deputy Commissioner of the NIA, Francis Palm-deti, denied all allegations that his outfit is turning away Fulanis.

We do not target any tribe or any group of persons for this registration,“ Mr. Palm-deti explained.

“It is a registration open to Ghanaians, all Ghanaians aged 15 years and above and who a Ghanaian is, is defined in our laws and it is clear. You must trace your citizenship to a parent or a grandparent,” he added.

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!

Unblock notifications in browser settings.
ADVERTISEMENT

Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:

Email: eyewitness@pulse.com.gh

ADVERTISEMENT