Godfred Yeboah Dame
An Accra High Court will today hear an application for interlocutory injunction against the mass registration exercise for the Ghana Card in the Eastern Region by the National Identification Authority (NIA).
This was after the court presided over by Justice Anthony Oppong, a Court of Appeal judge sitting with an additional responsibility, granted an application to abridge the time for the hearing from April 9, 2020 filed by the Office of the Attorney General.
The NIA announced last week that it has suspended its Ghana Card registration after an outpour of public criticism in the wake of the COVID-19 spread.
However, before the NIA could officially announce the suspension, Kevor Mark-Oliver and Emmanuel Akumatey Okrah had filed a suit against the registration exercise.
They subsequently filed an application for interlocutory injunction to compel the NIA to halt the exercise, pending the determination of the suit which was scheduled for April 9.
The Attorney General then filed an application praying the court to move the date for the hearing of the application forward.
Moving the application for abridgement of time yesterday, Deputy Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, urged the court to abridge the time and if it was minded to do, lawyer for the applicants should be made to move his application for injunction so he could respond to it.
He added that the applicants in their opposition to the application to abridge time argued that there was already an injunction against the exercise which was granted by another High Court differently constituted but that application is different from the instant one and has no binding effect.
Lawyer for the applicants, Kpakpo Addo, in his submission, said the AG did not demonstrate that they had the leave of court to ‘short-serve’ the applicants with their motion to abridge time as dictated by the rules of court and urged the court not to grant it.
The presiding judge, Justice Oppong, in his ruling, said it was necessary for such a human right issue to be heard with speed and efficiency.
He said he found it odd that the applicants who brought the motion for injunction would rather oppose an application seeking to abridge the time for the hearing.
He granted the motion and asked lawyer for the applicants to move his motion.
Mr. Kpakpo, however, informed the court that an affidavit in opposition to their application as well as a letter of appointment of counsel by NIA had just been served on him.
He, therefore, prayed the court to give him some time to study it. The matter was adjourned to March 27 (today).
BY Gibril Abdul Razak