Court dismisses application against NIA

An Accra High Court on Friday dismissed an Interlocutory injunction application filed against the National Identification Authority (NIA) registration exercise, which was ongoing in the Eastern Region.

The Court presided over by Justice Anthony Oppong said the exercise was not in contravention of the President’s directive to prevent the spread of COVID-I9.

The court held that the NIA’s decision to continue with the registration was not against the President’s directives suspending social or public gatherings.

The court said the President’s directive did not stop businesses but tasked them to observe certain directives and due to that the Courts are working and observing those protocols.

It said applicants did not also demonstrate the right to be protected by the Court.

It therefore awarded a cost of GH¢6,000 against the Applicants.

Mr Kevor Mark-Oliver and Emmanuel Akumatey sued the NIA on the grounds that the continuous registration and issuance of the Ghana card in the Eastern Region had the tendency of spreading the COVID-19 disease in the country.

Through their lawyers, led by Nii Kpakpo Addo, they filed an injunction application arguing that the registration exercise by the NIA was in breach of the President’s directives and a violation of their fundamental human rights.

Mr Godfred Dame Yeboah, the Deputy Attorney General in a rebuttal said the NIA had not violated the President’s ban on public gathering.

He held that the functions of the NIA were part of the class of services, businesses and workplaces excluded by the ban imposed by the President’s directive, adding that applicants had no cause of action in respect of which an order of interlocutory injunction ought to be dismissed.

On March 23, 2020, 30 persons also secured an exparte interim injunction on the mass registration against the NIA in another High Court in Accra.

However, that substantive application is still pending.

Source: GNA