The extension of the deadline given for the registration of the National Identification Number (NIN) and has been ordered by a Federal High Court in Lagos.
Granting the extension was Justice Maureen Onyetenu, after a suit was filed by a legal practitioner, Monday Ubani.
Listed as respondents in the suit are the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami; the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami; Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and the federal government.
The federal government had directed Nigerians to register for their National Identification Number (NIN) and link it with their phone numbers.
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The most recent deadline given, after a series of extensions, was April 6; a date that Ubani contended in the suit.
Failure to register for a NIN and subsequent linking with SIM cards will result in the blocking of one’s number by their telecoms company.
In the suit, Ubani stated, “A declaration that in view of the Covid-19 pandemic and the rising cases in Nigeria presently, the deadline given by the 1st, 3rd and 4th Respondents to the Applicant and over 200 million Nigerians to register their SIM Cards with NIN, will lead to a rush, thereby resulting to clustering of the Applicant and other Nigerian citizens in a NIN registration centre, subjecting him to the possibility of easily contracting the covid-19 virus, and such will amount to a violation of his fundamental right to life as protected by section 33(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
“An order halting the said ultimatum given by the 1st, 3rd and 4th Respondents to telecommunication operators to block all SIM Cards that are not registered with NIN.”
