Dr. Joe Anokye, the Director-General of the National Communications Authority (NCA), has moved to allay fears of potential internet disruptions compromising the integrity of the 2024 general elections.
In an interview on Citi Tv’s Eyewitness News on Tuesday, Dr. Anokye directly addressed concerns raised regarding the possibility of election interference due to internet disruptions, branding such assertions as baseless and unfounded.
He asserted, “That is completely not true if you understand how elections work, infact I believe one official of the EC even addressed this that on election day everything they do is manual. So there is no truth to that, the government won’t do that.”
During the interview, Dr. Anokye also provided insights into the challenges faced in identifying the root causes of recent interruptions in undersea fiber optic cables, which are crucial for maintaining internet connectivity across Ghana. He explained that the vast distances between the four subsea cables pose significant obstacles in pinpointing the exact causes of the disruptions.
“These 4 cables in Ivory Coast, Cote D’Ivoire, ACE, one of them is called Ace. That’s the one closer. it’s about 118km or so. Between that cable and the next cable is about 11 kilometres and just to put it in context, you know, 11 kilometres is from, like, you know, the general post office to Accra Mall.”
“The distance between that cable SAT-3 and the next cable, which is the main one, is allegedly to be about 67 kilometres, which is like from Accra Mall to Suhum. And all 3 were compromised. The distance between Main One and WACS, it’s also 77 kilometres. This is Suhum to Nkawkaw. So it is very difficult to determine exactly what happened,” he stated.
