Deputy Minority Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim says President Akufo-Addo has been cautioned by the National Security Minister that any attempt to deactivate SIM cards could destabilise the peace in the country.
According to the lawmaker, this explains why the National Communications Authority (NCA) reversed its plans of rolling out a partial restriction on voice calls last month.
Mr Ibrahim is, therefore, puzzled by the insistence of Sector Minister, Ursula Owusu Ekuful to proceed with the deactivation of SIM cards.
Although the Authority says it will not be able to print all outstanding Ghana National Identification Cards, the sole document for the verification of the chips, the NCA says the directives of the Minister are still in force.
However, speaking on The Pulse, Thursday, September 29 2022, the Member of Parliament for Banda who also serves on the Communications Committee in Parliament told host, Blessed Sogah that President Akufo-Addo has been cautioned by the National Security Ministry against blocking the SIM cards owing to the potential threats to the stability of the country.
“The two-day blockage of people’s SIM cards, the National Security Ministry had to go to the Presidency to talk to them that the country was about to be destabilized before the SIM cards were released. They will not go ahead to tell you this but that was the practical situation that happened. Ghanaians were furious and they nearly exploded,” he said.
Meanwhile, JoyNews checks at some registration centers across the country a day before the September 30 deadline indicate that many Ghanaians for some days now have besieged the centres with the same complaint of inability to register their SIM cards.