ANAMBRA RESIDENTS BEMOAN SLOW PACE OF NIN REGISTRATION, ALLEGE EXTORTION BY WORKERS

Reporter : UCHE NDEKE

Some residents of Anambra State have appealed to the Federal Government to address the daunting challenges discouraging people from getting their National Identification Numbers, (NIN) from various National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) outlets nationwide.

This is in view of the difficulties they are encountering at NIMC outlets for their identification numbers.

Speaking with Radio Nigeria at the NIMC Office in Enugwu Agidi Road Amawbia, Anambra State, the people expressed worry about insufficient manpower, extortion of enrollees, lack of enough forms for enrollees among other issues.

Since the Federal Government instructed that SIM cards be linked with National Identification Numbers of all eligible Nigerians, thousands of people have been besieging registration outlets in a bid to comply with the directives and to beat the deadline.

The National Identification Management Commissions head office in Anambra State is not left out as hundreds of people have been trouping in daily for the exercise.

Radio Nigeria captured the mood of the people who said they had been coming for days without being successful.

Some of them complained that of the seventy persons called from the long list written in the morning, only about forty had been attended to at about quarter to four in the evening.

A resident of Awkuzu, Miss Promise Eze, narrated that she arrived the head office by five o’clock in the morning only to see that sixty persons had written their names on the list provided at the gate.

“Haa! Oga you don’t understand what is happening oo oo, I arrived here by five o’clock in the morning and was surprise my number was 60 on the list. Someone that came by 3 AM her name was number 6 on the list. Imagine that I am still here now and its almost 4PM,” she lamented.

Miss Eze also alleged that they were being extorted before getting attended to by the staff.

“If you want it sharp sharp, you pay money and they will do it for you, if not, you stay here with us. I went to Njikoka Local Government to do the enrollment, they told me to bring five thousand naira, me I don’t have that kind of money,” Miss Eze alleged.

Another corroborative voice of an angry and disappointed resident, Mr. Benson Chike, was captured by Radio Nigeria after he said he had spent close to ten hours waiting to be attended to.

“Why will they keep us here till this time before telling me to bring #2000. I would have given them since morning and go, this is not fair,” Mr. Chike stated angrily.

He also alleged that the sum of #4,500 was collected from him in the same office when he first came for enrollment in 2017.

Another resident, Mrs. Matha Onyekaonwu, called on the Federal Government to urgently look into the hiccups to reduce the stress and burden on the people.

For Mr. Ben Osita, though he got what he came for, the Federal Government needed to address the poor network issue, which hampers service delivery in such situations.

However, the State Coordinator of the Commission, Mrs. Bibian Ekweonwu, in an interaction with Radio Nigeria, denied the allegation of extortion and explained that money being paid in the bank was statutory.

She however blamed the slow pace on poor internet service but appealed to the people to be patient and always adhere to instructions, which were meant to enable the workers serve them better.

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