NIN: Nigerians Risk 14 Years Imprisonment — FG Warns

The federal government has announced that Nigerians without a National Identification Number (NIN) risk 14 years imprisonment.

A reliable source gathered 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.

Polity Reporters understands that 51 million Nigerians have enrolled for the National Identification Number as of March 31, 2021.

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

He also said 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.

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“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,” Pantami said.

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

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The minister peddled 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.