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 6,000 cedis
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: Ghana News Agency