NIA Staff Who Started Work Early To Clear Long Queues Of Ghana Card Seekers Dismissed

• A 39-year-old man has dragged the NIA to the National Labour Commission over his unfair dismissal
• Martin Akowuah says he was sacked via a notice that was sent to his WhatsApp for attending to Ghana Card seekers earlier than the official 8 a.m. time
• According to him, he and his team started work earlier because they were hoping to deal with the problem of long queues that constantly form at their station

Until his dismissal via WhatsApp message, Martin Akowuah worked for the National Identification Authority (NIA) as the District Registration Officer for the Madina area but says was unfairly dismissed in July this year.

According to Akowuah, the bizarre ground for his dismissal is that he started work before the official time of 8 a.m. However, he explained that he started work earlier to enable him to deal with the backlog of applications for the Ghana Card.

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Now, Akowuah is fighting his dismissal. He has petitioned the National Labour Commission (NLC) to help undo an injustice.

In the petition, he sent to the NLC that YEN.com.gh and sighted, Akowuah, 39, explained why he decided to start work earlier than the official 8 a.m.

"Unlike other offices, the Madina NIA office was a busy one with pressure that required the team to be proactive to keep up with the rush number of applicants who visit our office daily to acquire the Ghana card sometimes requiring the team and I to start earlier than the usual working hours just to get some more applications through the system than we would ordinarily have managed," Akowuah explained.

That was the honest explanation he gave to the Executive Secretary of the NIA, Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, when he visited his station as part of a routine visit on March 11, 2022.

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Akowuah said he thought he and his team were being proactive by starting work earlier to deal with the nationwide problem of people joining long queues for hours to obtain their Ghana cards. He was wrong.

"To my utmost surprise, I was sent a query to answer as to why I had to start office hours earlier than the normal 8 a.m.," he said in his petiton to the NLC.

The query letter quickly escalated into an unusually long interdiction -- 14 months interdiction -- and subsequently a dismissal notice that was not printed or given any semblance of formality but sent to his WhatsApp number.

Despite a letter he wrote to the NIA Governing Board appealing that the grounds for his dismissal be probed, nothing has changed. The board has not even acknowledged receipt of the letter.

He is still home, jobless and in pain for the injustice done to him.

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"I have a family. I am a father and a husband. They depend on me. Coupled with this economic situation, life has really been difficult since I was dismissed," he told YEN.com.gh in an exclusive interview.

The NLC has written to Prof Attafuah, the NIA boss to respond in writing to Akowuah's petition within 14 days. However, that ultimatum elapsed on Thursday, October 14 without a response from him.

The NIA could not be reached for a response.

Steps to register for Ghana Card online

YEN.com.gh reported in a separate story that the Ghana Card online registration has become necessary since the Ghanaian authorities made it mandatory as a requirement for linking sim cards among other government-issued means of identification.

However, the agency in charge of this exercise deferred the registration of individuals below 15 years old to focus on citizens above that age range.

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Ghanaian man in US says police force offered him free recruitment

Also, a Ghanaian TikTok user Prophakwa, now residing in the US, posted a video showing the contrasting ease of entering the police force in the US compared to Ghana.

The video, recorded at a police recruitment event, garnered attention from netizens who were surprised by the differences in recruitment processes between the two countries.

Prophakwa's video has ignited discussions on social media about the accessibility and fairness of joining the police force in different parts of the world.

Source: YEN.com.gh