Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Sam George has lambasted the National Identification Authority (NIA) over what he says is their failure to do due diligence in the registration of SIM cards for the country’s identification card; the Ghana Card.
In the wake of reports of different connected SIMs to the Ghana Cards of some citizens, Sam George has described the situation as a breach of personal data which is a criminal offense.
According to him, beyond the fact that these SIMs could be used by unidentified persons to commit crimes on the blind side of the Ghana Card holders, it could foment trouble for the people without their knowledge.
“What has happened is a breach of personal data. It’s a criminal offense. To register a SIM card, your bio-metrics must be taken, your face must be used,” he said.
“I went through all that, and so if SIM cards have been registered without your knowledge, it means your bio-metric data and your facial details is available to someone who has used it to register a SIM card, what else can they use your bio-metric data to do?” Sam George continued.
The Member of Parliament also accused the NIA of exuding negligence by failing to authenticate Ghana Card details of registered citizens to ensure that the data used is genuine.
He further dared them to emerge to refute his claims if they indeed went through the right processes and did due diligence with their data collection.
“From Day 1, I said this process was a flawed process, people said I was doing politics. Because I said that if you are going to register SIM cards and you cannot cross-reference the information being presented to you, against the central database which is at the NIA, you are wasting your time,” he said.
“Let me expose on this platform. That all the bio-metric data and all the SIM cards that they claim they have registered, none of those Ghana Cards, have been verified with the NIA. I am challenging the NCA, to before 12 o Clock today, come and rebut what I am saying. All the registrations that they claim they have done, they have not cross-referenced them, with the NIA. The NIA has not authenticated that the Ghana Card details that they claim to have used to register the SIM card are genuine data sitting with the NIA. They’ve not done that,” Sam George added.
