By Lovemore Khomo
Senior Public Relations Officer of the National Registration Bureau Norman Fulatira has refuted claims that minors are being paraded to register for National IDs to make them eligible voters in the upcoming 2025 General Election.
Fulatira was reacting to claims made last week on Friday by Concerned Citizens group led by Wells Khama, that minors are being registered with inflated ages.
“We are quite disturbed by the accusations, especially the most recent ones, as if you can investigate the claims further, you will discover that they are completely false and terrible. NRB may face certain difficulties, but in this specific case, everything the so-called concerned citizens claimed to be true is completely false.” Fulatira said during a media tour to NRB sites carrying out registration for national IDs.
Fulatira went on to say that they do request that law enforcement look into this case because it is criminal in nature, requires investigation, and, if necessary, calls for the arrest and prosecution of those involved due to claims involving money.
He made the point that, as the nation prepares to cast its ballots next year, the remarks made by a handful of worried citizens could potentially cause problems for the national ID registration process and negatively affect the electoral process.
“We wanted the truth of the matter to be known, and all Malawians must know what happened by taking you journalists to the parents of the children and traditional leaders to shed light on the matter.”
A parent of a youngster paraded during the press briefing, Mary Shani, raised concern about the actions used by the concerned group to convince her to give them a boy to go and apply for what they claimed was a bursary, but was in fact not one.
“Since the youngster is in Form 1, we felt it was a good idea to make sure he should continue his education, but he dropped out due to school fees. However, once they arrived in town, they were neglected by the concerned citizens and didn’t tell why they had brought them there, which is unacceptable “explained Shani.
She said that her 20-year-old son had gone through the stringent procedures required by national law to obtain an NRB ID card.
“After coming from town, where they got taken by a concerned citizens group, my boy did explain that the issue was not about school, as alluded to earlier by the group, but they were involved in a press briefing, though no one spoke.” Said Shani
They also accused the concerned citizens for not getting consent from parents, saying they feel that their children were abducted.
Group Village Headman Chigoma of Traditional Authority Kabudula, denied claims that local politicians and parents push children to apply for national identification cards.
“This is untrue. Our own records, which are kept by District Council, reflect the number and gender of our people, including children. We use those records to determine age eligibility and citizenship when NRB shows up to conduct ID registration exercises.” Said Chigoma
However, in response to claims that he kidnapped the children and took them into town without getting their parents’ permission, Khama called it “unfounded” that the only people who went on to question the parents were politicians rather than NRB officials.
Khama has since called NRB to make the records available to the public and media alike to help ascertain the circumstances surrounding the matter.
