The Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Professor Kenneth Attafuah, has hit back at critics accusing his outfit of plotting to rig the 2020 elections.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) had accused the NIA of conspiring with the Electoral Commission (EC) to rig the 2020 general elections for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP).
But on Citi TV‘s Face to Face with Godfred Akoto Boafo, Prof Attafuah said he was greatly offended by the unsubstantiated claims.
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He remarked that the thought of conspiring to rig an election never crossed his mind.
His office has also formally denied the claims by the NDC in a statement.
“It is deeply offensive for your integrity to be assailed on no grounds other than mere conjectures, speculation and supposition. There is no iota of truth [in the allegations]. It is not something I have ever dreamt of.”
He also said he was surprised by the attempts “to construct an image of Ken Attafuah as an evil person involved in a criminal enterprise to deprive the citizenry of their fuel and determination.”
He also said such accusations were insulting to the Board of Governors of the Authority.
According to him the NDC’s allegations imply that NIA “Board of Governors would either sit idly and blindingly allow me and my management to lead this organization into an evil conspiracy to rob the good people of this country of their free will and choice.”
Professor Kenneth Attafuah, stressed that the accusations are mind-boggling that such allegations lowered the bar of politics in Ghana adding that “we are not aiding the enterprise of statecraft and good governance.”
Reason for NDC’s allegations
The NDC had said the NIA and the Electoral Commission were conspiring because of purported disparities in the registration for the Ghana Card in different regions.
This is of concern to the NDC because the EC has presented a Constitutional Instrument to amend C.I 91 to make the Ghana Card and passports the only form of identification registering onto the electoral roll.
The EC also plans to begin a new voters registration exercise.
With these in mind, addressing the media on May 14, 2020, the National Chairman of the NDC, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, alleged that the National Identification Authority prioritised the Ashanti Region during its registration exercise since the region is noted to be an NPP stronghold.
He said the NIA deployed a number of its equipment to the region in a bid to capture more people so the NPP could get more voters to be captured onto the new electoral roll.
source : citinews
