SIM Card Re-Registration Case: 9 applicants withdraw lawsuit after  NIA disclosure

All nine applicants for Ghana Cards had submitted applications, according to the NIA answer, however, none of the applicants picked up their printed cards from the locations where they were instructed to do so.

Nine Ghanaian persons who filed a lawsuit seeking an interlocutory injunction to stop the Attorney General (AG) and the National Communication Authority (NCA) from enforcing the 30 September 2022 deadline for SIM Card re-registration in Ghana have withdrawn their case.

The application was premised on the argument that they had applied for their Ghana cards at varying dates but were yet to receive the same. To that end, should the Court allow the State and the NCA to go ahead with the re-registration deadline, they risked losing their SIM cards through no fault of theirs.

NCA request letter

Their decision to discontinue the case followed the response of the National Identification Authority (NIA) to a search letter written to the NIA by the lawyer for the NCA, Gary Nimako Marfo, requesting the NIA to furnish the NCA with detailed information on the status of the Ghana Card application of all the nine applicants.

The NIA response to the NCA dated 28 September 2022 and signed by the Executive Director of the NIA, Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, and copied to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, revealed that all the nine applicants had indeed applied for their Ghana Cards, but all had however failed to pick up their cards which had been printed from the locations they had been asked to do so.

NCA deposition

Following the NIA’s response to the letter of the NCA lawyer, an affidavit deposed to by one Kofi Ntim Yeboah-Kordieh, Principal Manager at the Regulatory Administration Division of the NCA, among others, is quoted as saying, “From the response given in Exhibit NCA 2 (NIA’s response), it is clear that the substantive action including the present application for an injunction is frivolous, bereft of merit and same is merely intended to vex the Respondents”.

“That again, it is clear that the Applicants have been indolent and have not taken any positive steps to collect their Ghana Cards from National Identification Authority. That this is a proper case where this Honourable Court ought to dismiss this application with punitive cost,” Mr Yeboah-Kordieh stated in his deposition.

Applicants’ reliefs sought 

The applicants; Belynda Naa Odey Hammond, Jennifer Elorm Dzikunu, Charisty Mansah Afua N. Ackotia, Nsor Sabasi, Josephine Annor Prempeh, Vida Delacy Kemevor, Regina Elkplim Dagadu, Irene Ayariga, and Tracy Ashong, today 29 September 2022, told an Accra High Court (General Jurisdiction 10) that they do not intend to proceed any further with the case.

The applicants were seeking seven reliefs in their application filed on 22 September 2022. First, a declaration that the impugned directive of the Respondents requiring the Applicants to re-register their Mobile Phone SIM with the Ghana Card as the only identity document at a time when the National Identification Authority has not been able to issue Ghana Cards to Applicants is in breach of articles 21, 23 and 296 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, the National Communications Authority Act 2008 (Act 769), the Subscriber Identity Module Registration Regulation, 2011 (L.I 2006), and the National Identity Register Regulation, 2012 (L.I 2111) and to that extent, null and void.

Second, a declaration that the impugned directives of the Respondents imposing punitive measures/sanctions commencing from the 5^th day of September 2022 on the use of the Applicants’ Mobile Phone SIM Cards and Network Services breach articles 21, 23, and 296 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, the National Communications Authority Act 2008 (Act 769), the Subscriber Identity Module Registration Regulation, 2011(L.I 2006), and the National Identity Register Regulation, 2012 (L.I 2111) and to that extent, are null and void.

Third, a declaration that the impugned directives of the Respondents to Applicants’ Mobile Telecommunication Companies to block, disconnect, deactivate, churn and/or in any other way or manner limit the use of the Applicants’ Mobile Phone SIM Cards and Network Services by 30^th September 2022, at a time when there is no reasonable possibility of Applicants receiving their Ghana Cards from the National Identification Authority on or before 30^th September 2022 for the purpose of using same to register their SIM Cards is unfair, unreasonable, contrary to law and to that extent, unenforceable.

Fourth, an order of this Honourable Court in the nature of certiorari directed at Respondents to bring before this Honourable Court for the purpose of being quashed, any order, decision, policy, and/or directive issued to Mobile Telecommunication Companies operating in Ghana to block, disconnect, deactivate, restrict, and/or in any other way or manner limit the use of the Applicants’ Mobile Phone SIM Cards and Network Services unless Applicants register or re-register the said SIM Cards on or before 30^th September 2022.

Fifth, an order of this Honourable Court in the nature of certiorari directed at Respondents to bring before this Honourable Court for the purpose of being quashed any order, decision, policy, and/or directive issued to Mobile Telecommunication Companies operating in Ghana to impose punitive measures/sanctions against Applicants’ Mobile Phone SIM Cards and Network Services during the period commencing from the 5^th day of September 2022.

Sixth, an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Respondents herein, either acting by themselves, their agents, workmen, contractors and sub-contractors, associates, and any and all such person(S) claiming and/or deriving authority through and/or under any and/or all of the Respondents herein from imposing punitive measures/sanctions including blocking, deactivating, restricting, churning and/or in any other way or manner limiting the Applicants’ use of their Mobile Phone SIM Cards and Network Services until such time that the National Identification Authority shall make available to Applicants their Ghana Cards, and lastly, any such further or other relief(s) as to this Honourable Court may seem just.

Following the decision to discontinue, the Court did not sit on the matter at all.