GBEVLO LARTEY AND SIM CARD REGISTRATION

Sometime last year, Col. Gbevlo Lartey (Rtd), a former commander of the erstwhile 64 Battalion – a.k.a Commandos, a special unit of the Ghana Armed Forces loyal to the PNDC and Chairman Rawlings, who now is the National Security Coordinator of the Atta-Mills government out of the blue instructed telecom service providers to register all SIM cards (CHIP). This instruction did not engage the minds of the social commentators privileged to be on radio and TV until the earthquake hoax which saw me waking up at 3:30GMT that fateful night. It was believed this hoax had been facilitated by mobile phone calls and text messages. Then the newly elected propaganda secretary of the Umbrella decided to tell Ghanaians that the hoax was facilitated by their political detractors – obviously he qualified for this propaganda job. That same week, a jail breaker calls the Upper West Regional Police Commander on phone to threaten his life. Then Gbevlo Lartey decided to remind Ghanaians of his earlier instruction and this time round to give a deadline to the mobile phone operators. It was this instruction that set forth the debate of which I humbly join not based on any technical or expert knowledge but rather from the viewpoint of a user of a telephony service and a layman.

 

Mr National Security, I wish to remind you in case you have forgotten that very few people trust you and your national security. The political history of this country supports this. Your office had in the past and now been used for political persecution. In 2001, national security operatives continuously mounted operations against former government officials of the NDC. Upon assuming office, your office sacked employees believed to have been employed between 2001 and 2008. Well I never heard you debunk this story. Then your persecution and harassment of NPP government officials including the flagbearer of NPP in the 2008 elections who missed being President by less than two thousand votes was set forth. Till today, his car is still in your possession. The fact of the matter is that some of us Ghanaians do not want anything to do with national security no matter which party is in power. So once you decide to ask us to register our sim cards, some of us who are already registered are considering quitting mobile phones. Eh! National security would be monitoring their political opponents.

 

Secondly, Mr Gbevlo Lartey, I wonder if the registration of cars has stopped criminals from using cars in their clandestine activities. Is it not the case that a call log can be established from a phone if an appropriate court order is sought? For instance, MTN upon a court order can produce all call made from a particular sim card. An appropriate investigative body which is well equipped would be able to establish the identity of who used the sim in question whether or not that sim is registered. Moreover, assuming my sim is stolen at 22:30GMT and is used for criminal activity @ 23:00GMT that same night. How am I exonerated from criminal liability since I am the registered and bonafide owner of this sim card? Can national security assure me, a law abiding citizen who has registered my sim card of protection?

 

The fact of the matter is that to fight crime involving mobile phones require nothing near to sim card registration. What national security is proposing is the easy way out. To call MTN and ask them who owns 054xxxxxxx? An able bodied security apparatus must think outside the box. For now, I can conjecture a thousand and one ways to beat your proposed system if the objective is to reduce crime facilitated by mobile phones. I also wonder why national security would bypass the National Communications Authority (NCA), the organisation that regulates operations of the telecommunications service providers in Ghana. I also wonder if our emails have been registered by national security. Or are you monitoring the emails we send and receive everyday? Mr National Security, if the objective of registering sim cards is to know who owns which sim card, then I wonder why national security would be interested in knowing who owns which sim card unless there is political gain to be made by the ruling party as the history of the national security apparatus has shown. It is an institution which chases cars of former ministers of state and gives it to party foot soldiers has happened to Nana Akomea’s car early 2009.

If National Security is poking its nose into our sim cards under the huge banner of national security concerns, more questions than answers are raised. Very soon, the choice of our clothes, the beer we drink, and the night clubs we prefer to party would all be national security concerns. For in the clubs we meet people and discuss anything of interest. It is a perfect excuse to infringe on the freedom of citizens and the first step at nationalising every citizen. Our freedom is inalienable. The coat of arms, the national emblem of the state says Freedom and justice. Don’t hide under anything to limit our freedom. National security, please get off our backs!!!!