The Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Abisoye Coker-Odusote, has said that terrorists and kidnappers are often able to evade tracking through Nigeria’s National Identification Number (NIN) system because they frequently use the mobile phones of their victims.
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television, Coker-Odusote said one of the biggest challenges confronting security agencies is that kidnappers often use the mobile phones of their victims, making it difficult to identify or trace them through their own registered identities.
Responding to a question on why terrorists are still able to make phone calls without being apprehended if the NIN system is truly secure, the NIMC boss said the issue goes beyond the identity database itself.
“We already know that the NIN is the foundational identity for the security architecture, but you’ll find out that a lot of the time, the kidnappers use the phones of the people they have abducted,” she said.
“So, which means how do you trace them, first of all? Because they’re not using their own phones.”
The NIMC boss added that some suspected foreign attackers may not even be captured in the country’s identity database, despite the NIN serving as the foundation of Nigeria’s security architecture.
“And then there’s this theory that may be possible. If some kidnappers are not Nigerians and they are brought in 48 hours or 72 hours before the kidnapping happens just for that purpose, I’m not insinuating anything, then we won’t have them on the database naturally,” she said.
Despite the concerns, Coker-Odusote maintained that the NIN remains a critical tool for law enforcement, insisting that several security agencies are already integrated with the identity management system and are deploying it in crime-fighting operations.
“But I will tell you that a lot of the security agencies are integrated and they are using it, and it helps them in terms of fighting crime,” she said.
Coker-Odusote also urged Nigerians seeking to enrol for the National Identification Number to take advantage of the commission’s expanding registration network.
According to her, NIMC has moved enrolment closer to communities through ward-level registration centres to make the process more accessible, especially for people living far from local government offices.
She said prospective applicants can visit the commission’s website to locate the nearest enrolment centre, complete a pre-enrolment online, and book appointments before visiting any NIMC centre.
The NIMC boss disclosed that the commission currently operates in every state of the federation through about 1200 enrolment locations across Nigeria, while Nigerians living abroad can access services at approximately 950 diaspora locations.
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