Persons who wish to register names such as Nana, Naa, Junior among others, have been turned away in recent times by the Births and Deaths Registry with a reason that such names are considered as titles.

The Registrar at the Births and Deaths Registry, John Yao Agbeko, justified the action saying the law governing the Registry’s operations – Act 301 (1965), gives them the power to do so.

[contextly_sidebar id=”LGy62IJNXbUG4za2QgDBj9E0dNd4tjkh”]“There is a law that regulates the activities of the Births and Deaths registry, that law is the Births and Deaths Registration Act 301 of 1965. In this Act, we have a function for the Minister to do a regulation. In the regulation, there is a function for the Registrar to come out with a mode of operation.”

“…So even though you will not read it in the Act, the regulation allows the registrar to come out with the mode of operation to manage the place, and that is what we have done. That is why if you go to Tamale, the one over there will tell you that you cannot register that name. If you pick that same name and you run to Accra, in order to do same, you will be told you can’t do it,” he explained on the Citi Breakfast Show on Thursday.

But in Ace Ankomah’s view, what the Registry is doing “is not in the law, and it is also not in the regulation that was supposed to have been made under the 1965 Act.”

Also sharing his opinion on the issue on the Citi Breakfast Show, Ace Ankomah insisted that the Registry has no right to do that, and  instead that they are breaching the law.

This nonsense must stop!

“What the law says is that, they should have a mode of operation. The Births and Deaths Registry has no power to make law. Having a mode of operation must comply with the law. So if the fundamental law does not give you a certain power, you cannot be claiming that you have written your own mode of operation to make that power to yourself. So it does not exist, it has no legal basis, that nonsense must stop,” he fumed.

AG petitioned 

The legal practitioner also said he has petitioned the Attorney General’s department over the matter, and threatened to head to court if persuasion fails.

“It is backward. It didn’t exist at least in 1990 when I registered my children. This is a recent thing they’ve started. We’ve written to the Attorney General to tell them to stop this. If they don’t, this matter will be going to court. There is no legal basis for that,” he added.

–

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Blacklisting ‘title’ names illegal – Ace Ankomah fumes appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.