NIMC, NCC Collaborate With Security Agencies Against Kidnapping

The Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Abisoye Coker-Odusote, has said the agency and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) are collaborating with security agencies to track down kidnappers and rescue their victims.
Coker-Odusote spoke at the Stakeholders Consultation Forum in Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project (NDID4D) l in Abuja, recently.
He said they were going to use the National Identity Numbers (NIN) and Subscribers Identity Modules (SIM) databases to track them down.
The Tide’s source reports that the forum is with the theme, “Fostering Inclusion and Feedback Mechanism in the Nigeria Digital (ID4D) Project”.
Odusote declined to give details of the collaboration, saying some gaps had 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.
Odusote, who spoke via her Technical Assistant, Mrs Ayobami Abiola, revealed that 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 implemented social security programmes successfully.
She 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 said more vulnerable persons, especially persons with disabilities, and people who were in various Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in the country, would be captured in the National Identity Database.
According to her, President Bola Tinubu 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.
“Since my assumption of office as the D-G of NIMC, I have led several sting operations to enrolment and regional coordination centres across the country.
“Some of our staff who were found extorting enrollees were handed over to law enforcement agents for prosecution”, 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,
She said over 300 representatives of the revalidated enrolment agents drawn from every part of Nigeria, were undergoing training on several aspects of the enrolment process.