The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has urged Parliament to call the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation and the National Communication Authority (NCA) to order over the sanctions meted out to SIM card users yet to re-register their cards.
It stated that the actions of Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation and the NCA had been arbitrary and lawless, having no constitutional backing whatsoever and thus must be halted.
“It is an indisputable fact that the re-registration of mobile SIM cards policy and its attendant sanctions that are being meted out to citizens by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation and the National Communications Authority are neither backed by the SIM Registration Regulations, 2011 (L.I 2006) nor the National Identity Register Regulations, 2012 (L.I 2111) or any law in force in the country,” the party noted.
In a statement issued in Accra by Asiedu Nketia, the General Secretary of NDC, registering the party’s displeasure, decried the decision by the two entities to restrict the SIM cards of Ghanaians including those who had already re-registered their SIM cards was unlawful, irresponsible and unacceptable.
It unequivocally condemned the actions of the Ministry and the NCA for such mishandling and crass bungling of a simple exercise such as the ongoing SIM card re-registration and demanded that the Select Committee on Communications of Parliament halts the actions of Mrs Owusu-Ekuful and the NCA.
The statement commended individuals and groups who had taken legal actions against the government over the Ministry of Communication and Digitalisation and the NCA’s actions.
“While we commend and encourage legal actions filed by the citizenry who have been affected by the reckless SIM card restrictions, we call on Parliament, particularly the Parliamentary Select Committee on Communications to call the Minister of Communications and Digitalisation and the NCA to order in line with its oversight responsibility over the state entities and the lawlessness being displayed by Mrs Owusu-Ekuful and the NCA must be halted now,” it pointed out.
