Anger and frustration dominated emotions at the registration centre for the National Identification Number, NIN, in Kubwa, Abuja on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, after officials failed to show up for the exercise.
Hundreds of residents had turned up at the centre in a scramble to get the number and beat the deadline set by the Nigerian Communications Commission for sim cards to be linked with NIN.
The situation at the centre, however, turned chaotic when officials of the National Identity Management Commission failed to show up to attend to them and the crowd surged without direction or guidance.
As has been the case in many centres across the country, many of those at the centre expressed anger and disappointment about the way the process was being handled and demanded a review.
The situation at the centre had been peaceful on Monday, but, even then, enrollees had faulted the process and the lack of arrangments for people with disabilities.
The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, said recently said over 47 million Nigerians have registered for the National Identity Numbers, NINs.
Ikechukwu Adinde, the NCC director of Public Affairs, who disclosed this via a statement, said the figures represented the statistics collected by telecommunication mobile operators.
He noted that many more Nigerians would be linked up before the deadline for the exercise in February.
“So far a total of 47.8 million NINs have been collected by the mobile operators. At an average of 3 to 4 SIMs per subscriber, this means many millions will be linked up before the deadline in February 2021″.
Source: ChannelsTV
