Kidnapping: NIMC, NCC Partner Security Agencies

The Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Abisoye Coker-Odusote, has said the agency and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) are to collaborate with security agencies to track down kidnappers and rescue their victims.
The NIMC boss, who spoke recently at the Stakeholders Consultation Forum in Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project (NDID4D) in Abuja, said they were going to use the National Identity Numbers (NIN) and Subscribers Identity Modules (SIM) databases to track the kidnappers.
The Tide’s source reports that the forum is with the theme, “Fostering Inclusion and Feedback Mechanism in the Nigeria Digital (ID4D) Project’.
Coker-Odusote declined to give details of the collaboration, but added that some gaps have been identified and all stakeholders were working to close-up such gaps to address the security problems plaguing the country.
She said loopholes that had been identified were being plugged, while NIMC and NCC were also collaborating with security agencies to ensure infrastructure and other necessary information were harnessed to address the challenges.
Represented by her Technical Assistant, Mrs Ayobami Abiola, the NIMC boss said the essence of NIN for citizens was to reduce incidences of corruption and implement strategic development plans.
According to her, countries that have completed their national identity databases have been able to deploy them for development and implement social security programmes successfully.
She further said NIMC would strengthen relationships with key stakeholders to ensure that established functional structures across states, Local Government, Ward, and community levels could make enrolment for NIN more accessible to the people.
She also explained that more vulnerable persons, especially persons with disabilities, as well as people who were in various Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the country, would be captured in the National Identity Database.
President Bola Tinubu, she continued, had expressed concerns about fragmented identity and the need for Nigeria to have a unified system, saying the administration was committed to changing the narratives of national identity for all Nigerians.
“The President has expressed worry over our fragmented identity system, which is causing the country huge losses in expenditure and has given us marching orders to ensure we integrate and unify our identity system”, she said.
Odusote explained that aside from working to remove all impediments and barriers to enrolment for a national ID, NIMC was working closely with the NDID4 with support from the World Bank,

Stories compiled by King Onunwor