Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, has charged the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), and other security agencies to use the database from the National Identification Number (NIN) and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) in tackling insecurity in Nigeria.
Speaking during the Fourth National Identity Day celebration in Abuja, where he made this charge, Pantami lamented the poor utilisation of the database from the NIN and SIM by security forces in the country.
According to the minister, the proper utilisation of the database would check the country’s insecurity, such that terrorists could easily be tracked.
“We are pleading with our security institutions to make use of this database. It is not our work to do the security work. Our own work is to support them. The database is available for NIN and SIM. But from the information available at my disposal, the utilisation has been highly insignificant,” Pantami was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, just recently, Aliyu Aziz, the Director General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), disclosed that no less than 89 million people have been registered so far.
The NIMC chief while comparing the figure to the seven million he recorded when he took office in 2015, claimed that the latest figure of NIN enrollment represented an increase of 82 million.
His words: “The 89 million are the mainstream people. There are all the local people in the market, villages, nooks, and crannies that have not been enrolled. So, we are partnering with the traditional institutions.
“We will be partnering with them throughout the year so that we can go to the nooks and crannies to enroll more people.”
