Report by, Nsor Paul mensah
The Concern Zongo Citizens of Ghana are unhappy about the treatment being meted out to members of the Muslim communities across the country, When they go to register, or gets national identification documents like the Ghana card, Passports, Birth sets and any relevant document to prove their identity as Ghanaians.
The group are worried about the situation whereby Zongo natives been denied their rights to citizenship. These become especially apparent during registration exercises where local Communities were denied to register in some parts of the country.
"We are therefore call on National Identification Authority (NIA ) to take the necessary actions gently in order to bring relief to the plight of many of our Zongo people who are bonafide citizens of Ghana. Why are Zongo natives been denied their rights to citizenship? These become especially apparent during registration exercises.", They said.
The SIM registration exercise began on 1st October, 2021 and is expected to end on 315
March, 2022. As at 17th March, 14,091,542 SIM Cards have been linked to the Ghana Card,
10,348,532 Bio-Captures conducted and 99,445 New SIMs registered.
According to the spokesperson of concern zongo citizens Ghana, Mr. AHaruna Maiga, some of their people who don't have it are facing a lot of challenges to the fact that the authorities denied their identity to a extand that some people from local communities were arrested by police and put them into cells.
The Concern Zongo Citizens of Ghana continued that the authorities have sent countless petitions to all those who matter to help stem the tide of discrimination against Muslim people in this regard, but the problem still persist.
"Ghana is our homeland. And we have no other homeland except this. We will continue to fight for our in unattainable rights enshrined in the constitution. We need your support and assistance. We shall not relent nor give up in this quest for equal rights. And Justice For All our people."
Meanwhile the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization under the auspices of the Government of Ghana (GoG) says the ending date of the Sim card re-registration which commenced October 1, 2021, has been proactively extended.
Expected to end on March 31, 2022, the Minister for Communications and Digitalization, Madam Ursula Owusu Ekuful in a statement said the Sim card registration will now end July 31, 2022, nationwide.
“As of March 17, 2022, a total of 14,091,542 Sim cards have been linked to the Ghana card. 10,348, 532 bio-captures conducted and 99,445 new Sims registered,” the Digitalization Minister and Ablekuma West MP said on Tuesday.
Mrs Ekuful-Owusu Ursula said the decision to extend the Sim re-registration deadline follows the fact that over 7.5 million citizens and residents are yet to obtain their Ghana cards to enable them to register their Sim cards.
“More time will also be required to update the SIM Registration App for the registration diplomats while Self-Service Sim Registration App is also being developed to facilitate registration of Sim cards for Ghanaian residents abroad
“These issues make it imperative for the deadline to be extended to ensure that every eligible Sim card is captured and we produce a credible database by the end of the exercise,” the Communications Ministry statement explained.