One of the members of the Electoral Commission (EC) has come under intense pressure to come clean on her actual age.
Hajia Sa-Adatu Maida has been accused of reducing her age by three years, implying that under the law, she is supposed to have gone on retirement in her capacity as a member of the commission as at June 2018.
The woman, whose father is said to be former National Democratic Congress (NDC) chairman in Tamale, allegedly changed her age from her official records, claiming that she is less than 60 years presently.
Probe Letter
The issue is being raised by Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang, one of the lawyers for the EC staff, who triggered Article 46 of the 1992 Constitution that led to the dismissal of EC Chairperson Charlotte Osei.
The lawyer, through a letter, reportedly enquired from Hajia Maida about her actual age, but the commissioner is insisting that she has not attained the mandatory retirement age of 60 which requires her to vacate her position at the EC.
According to sources, the lawyer insists that Hajia Maida presented 5th June 1958 as her date of birth to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), which implies that she is currently 60 years and ought to retire from the commission.
SSNIT Errors
However, the commissioner is fighting back, saying her date of birth on her official records is 5th June 1961 and supposedly accused SSNIT of not entering the right date of birth in her records with them.
As a result, she has written to SSNIT to correct the anomaly without delay.
“By letter dated the 23rd of July 2018, a copy of which is attached hereto together with its attachments, Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang, Esq wrote to me requesting that I retire from the Electoral Commission of Ghana on the basis that I attained the age of 60 on the 5th day of June, 2018,” Hajia Maida reportedly wrote in a letter dated July 31, 2018, to SSNIT.
She said in the purported letter that “Mr. Opoku- Agyemang’s letter substantiated his call for my retirement from the commission by reference to a document purported to have emanated from the Social Security and National Insurance Trust described as my statement as at July 24, 2018, in which document my date of birth is wrongly recorded as the 5th day of June, 1958 instead of my true date of birth, which is the 5th day of June 1961.”
Official Documents
“I must emphasise that my true date of birth, which is the 5th day of June, 1961, is recorded in all my official documents ranging from my birth certificate to my passport and also reflected in other institutions where my personal details are required and kept,” she explained in the letter to SSNIT.
It said “from the document attached to Mr. Opoku-Agyemang’s letter, it’s plainly obvious that the Trust got my personal details wrong, as it erroneously records my date of first employment as the 1st day of January, 1900, which is about 61 years before I was born and even at a time when the Trust, in its present form, was not in existence. I contributed for 52 months in the year 1982. This clearly is an impossibility.”
She, therefore, asked SSNIT to “take steps to correct the records accordingly to reflect my true and proper date of birth, as well as other errors on my statement, and have attached a copy of my birth certificate for the necessary action.
Interestingly, her purported birth certificate, which captures her true age, was procured on 31st August, 2000.
Source: Daily Guide
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former National Democratic Congress (NDC) chairman in Tamale's daughter working in independent EC! So is this woman NDC or independent of any political party? Ghana is a funny place to live.
all those given comments in implicating the poor woman are just nothing but I..D..I..O..T.S Everything is now politics, insults....the Lawyer should sit down somewhere.Go toall the institutions and you will see a PROPER age changers. leave this woman alone..FOOOUUUUOOOOUUUUOOOUUUL
NDC PACKED THE EC WITH CRIMINALS SO THAT THEY COULD DO THEIR DIRTY JOBS FOR THEM.
I am not sure when you were born but some of us had to change our birth certificate to acquire a passport because the passport office rejected the old ones. Unless there is another evidence to implicate her, I will say, let's cut her some slack
These errors are common with ssnit. Even when you update the records it takes a long time for them to effect it. Since her correct date of birth certificate was done in 2000 I don't think it has anything to do with her current job unless she was already working there in the year 2000 then it calls for concern.
She has to go on retirement Immediately nation looter, she went and reduced her age at various institutions but can't do same at SSNIT.
What at all is this lawyer seeking for? SSNIT as an organisation employing lazy and "not my problem" attitude of Ghanaians many of these wrong data occurs. You are not the father or mother, nor the uncle or a relative, what is your problem? Make sure you will do that for all the staff of EC then the perceived agenda you are carrying out will not hold....
I will side with this lady if she can produce her original birth certificate, but if her birth cert is the one she went and procured from the birth and death registry herself, then i doubt. The fact is that its easier to change ones date of birth in some institutions but when it comes to SSNIT,its extremely difficult and a lot of workers are facing similar challenges. Looking at the face of madam i think she is 60 and should go home and rest,if 57 years of ones life did not produce any positive results, 3 years will not help.
She is not the only person reduced age in this country. Ask akuffo Addo himself and Amidu and Rawlings too.