Supreme Court ruling on birth certificate offensive – Franklin Cudjoe

President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, has described as offensive the Supreme Court ruling which rejected the birth certificate as proof of citizenship. 

According to him, the court judgment displaces the value of the birth certificate of Ghanaians.

Speaking on Citi TV‘s current affairs show, The Big Issue, Franklin said the law lords failed to consider the wider implications of the judgment.

”The ruling makes it very worse, It makes the matter worse that not a single member of that August body saw that, the judgement with all due respect is quite an offensive one. It makes it really worse.” he said.

He maintained “I think that the birth certificate is a legitimate document that is indicative of one’s nationality”.

Meanwhile, the Minority in Parliament has described as absurd reason given by the Supreme Court for its judgment against the use of birth certificate as a proof of citizenship.

According to the NDC MPs, the judgment itself contains a grave error in which the main complainant, the National Democratic Congress, (NDC) is referred to as NDP.

The full judgment written by Justice Prof. Ashie Kortey held that the birth certificate does not offer an identity to a bearer as a proof of citizenship.

It adds that it provides no evidence of citizenship.

The court compares it to another document it has already rejected; the National Health Insurance Cards and concludes it’s actually better than the Birth Certificate.