FG sends new warning, says Nigerians without NIN risk 14 Years Imprisonment

The federal government has declared that Nigerians without a National Identification Number (NIN) risk 14 years imprisonment. The Punch reports that this was disclosed by the minister of communication and digital Economy, Isa Pantami, at the weekly presidential media briefing organised by the Presidential Communication Media Team in Abuja on Thursday, April 1.

VAM News gathered that he said that 51 million Nigerians have enrolled for the National Identification Number as of March 31, 2021.

The minister encouraged Nigerians to enrol for NIN, warning that “those yet to obtain the NIN risk seven or 14 years imprisonment” as stipulated by the Nigerian constitution.

He explained that while obtaining a SIM card may be optional, NIN is mandatory and that a lot of transactions in the country are not supposed to be carried out without NIN.

Pantami said: “Based on the requirement by law each and every citizen and the legal resident must obtain his/her National Identification Number, which is being coordinated by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC). It’s a requirement by law but many citizens ignore it.

“What we achieved in the area of enrolment from the time Mr. President has directed me to supervise NIMC till date is unprecedented and we would continue to ensure that in the next few years we have an almost complete database of all our citizens in the country.

He added that no country would be successful in education, health, budget planning or national planning without a database of its citizens in place.

The minister noted that what he inherited in the database was less than 20% of our population, assuring that he wants to ensure that before he leaves office, he would look at the database and be proud of our country.

The Guardian also reports that Pantami announced that about 189 million Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) have been registered in the country.

He said the improper registration has posed a challenge, but stated that the government was currently dealing with the situation.