Mustapha Muhammad Tukur
The Federal Government has suspended some staff of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) over extortion of National Identity Number (NIN) applicants.
This was contained in a statement signed by the commission’s Head of Corporate Communications, Kayode Adekoge on Sunday where the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Ali Isa Ibrahim (Pantami) directed the immediate suspension of the staff.
The statement added that the staff were involved in extortion of applicants at the NIMC Bauchi and Kaduna State offices.
“This directive came on the heels of public outcry that some personnel of NIMC, particularly at some enrolment centers in Bauchi and Kaduna were capitalizing on the rush for NIN by the public to perpetuate fraudulent activities inimical to policy directive of the Federal Government which requires mobile network subscribers to update their SIM registration with a valid National Identification Number (NIN)”, the statement further said.
Adegoke said Pantami restated his zero tolerance stance on extortion, bribery and corruption and further noted that such unethical practices if allowed to fester and not nip in the bud by taking stiffer actions against the culprits, has the potency of derailing the SIM-NIN Integration project.
He reiterated that enrolment for the NIN is free of charge, and on no occasion should anyone pay to obtain an enrolment form or to have their biometrics captured.
He said: ” All personnel involved in the enrolment and NIN issuance exercise must carry out their respective duties professionally, fairly and with integrity.
“In light of the above, we wish to call on the general public to assist us in putting our commitments into action by sending proof of any nefarious activity within and around our enrolment centers (snapshot, footage, audio recordings) to 08157691214; 08157691071 or e-mail [email protected]”.
People without NIN all over the country are now struggling to get one, as the FG set a deadline for the registration, after which all communications SIM cards without NIN will be blocked.
This was introduced by the Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy in order to tackle Insecurity rate in the country as all the criminals uses mobile phone with registered sim cards for communication. The Country’s service providers have provided a code for its respective users that they’ll use to link their NIN with their sim cards.