Rawlings wasn’t misled to register for Ghana card – Gomoa West MP

New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Gomoa West Constituency, Alexander Abban, has rubbished suggestions that former President Jerry John Rawlings mistakenly registered for the Ghana card.

Mr. Rawlings, alongside John Agyekum Kufuor registered for their Ghana card on Tuesday despite a boycott of the exercise by the NDC Minority in Parliament.

Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram. Sam George, subsequently suggested that Mr. Rawlings would not have registered if he had actively engaged the Minority and listened to their concerns.

“I believe if President Rawlings had asked us as a Minority to explain and expatiate what our challenges are, he would have appreciated our position better and possibly aligned more with us, but unfortunately he did not grant us audience to explain.”

“President Rawlings did not hear us as a Minority or a party. On the basis of the foregoing, he was led mistakenly to believe that the NIA’S position is tenable. I believe that if President Rawlings seeks or demands audience from the Minority and we go before him with the evidence that we have, he will take a position in the interest of Ghanaians,” Sam George said.

But speaking on Citi TV’s Breakfast Daily, Mr. Abban indicated that the former President was not misled as suggested.

“The statement brings a lot of implications, some very bad, telling on the former President; meaning he does not have an independence of his own. What other argument are they going to put before him which is not already in the public domain? I believe former President Rawlings is with us. He has been following the arguments back and forth.”

“On the basis of all the arguments churned out, he has decided as a statesman to go and have the Ghana card, then my friend Sam George wants to find some kind of lame excuse to say that the former President was misled to go and register.”

The Minority in Parliament boycotted the Ghana card registration process for parliamentarians citing among other reasons the use of only birth certificates and passports as proof of citizenship which they say could denationalize many Ghanaians.

The caucus has said it will continue with its boycott of the exercise, and is currently backing a suit at the Supreme Court by a group against the process.

Kufuor backs use of voter ID for Ghana Cards

Meanwhile, former President John Agyekum Kufuor has backed calls for the National Identification Authority (NIA) to accept voters ID card as a proof of Ghanaian citizenship for the issuance of the Ghana card.

Speaking to journalists in Accra on Tuesday after he was registered, Mr. Kufuor said it is necessary for the voters ID card to be added as a form of identification.

“It should be added,” he said, explaining that “if voters ID card is not incorporated in this then when it comes to citizens going to make a government where would you be?”

“How would you say truly you also have power in your thumb to make or unmake a government? So voters ID card should be part of it,” he added.

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By: Marian Ansah/citinewsroom.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

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