Police arrests man who stole and formatted Ghana Card registration laptop

A man is in police grips after he allegedly made away with a HP laptop computer belonging to officials of the National Identification Authority.

Police in the Sekyere South District of the Ashanti Region said on Monday that the suspect 20-year-old Prince Kwadwo Boakye would soon be arraigned for court.

The incident occurred on Monday, December 16, 2019 after officials of the NIA noticed that one of their devices have been stolen from their storage room.

The incident reportedly delayed the registration exercise which took place at the Agona Community Center Monday.

Investigators were later deployed to the scene after an official complaint was filed by a District Registration Officer, Prince Asiedu.

Investigations led to the arrest of Prince Kwadwo Aboagye who was in possession of one of the keys to the storage room.

The device was later retrieved from his room after a search was conducted, police said in a report.

It was also discovered that the suspect had managed to format the device deleting any vital information they may aid in the registration process.

The suspect who had earlier denied the allegations during interrogation has since been detained into police custody.

Ghana has begun a registration exercise to issue identity cards to its citizens both at home and abroad.

Also known as the Ghana Card, it is issued by the Ghanaian authorities to Ghanaian citizens – both resident and non-resident, and legally and permanently resident foreign nationals. It is proof of identity, citizenship and residence of the holder.

The exercise is currently ongoing in the Ashanti Region.

Press Conference

Addressing a press conference at Ejisu on Monday [December 2, 2019], the Executive Secretary of the NIA, Prof Kenneth Agyeman Attafuah said the authority would operate from 47 district offices.

He said a number of centres would be set under the district offices and appealed to the residents to move to any of the centres closer to them to get themselves registered.

He warned staff of NIA against extorting money from the people and also asked residents not to pay any money to any official for the purposes of getting registered for the card.

He said the process was free of charge and that residents would only pay for the card if they misplaced it or during a renewal.

Statistics

According to Prof Attafuah, the NIA has registered a total of 4,857,845 Ghanaians, printed a total of 4,291,840 cards and issued 2,695,478 Ghana cards.

He said the Ashanti region is the region the Authority is targeting its largest number to be registered and believed that the exercise would be successful as the authority now has the full complement of its equipment.

Source: Jonathan Ofori, Daily Mail GH