Lagos residents groan over difficulty to obtain NIN

Scores of Lagos residents in Alimosho Local Government Area (LGA) have expressed worry over several fruitless attempts to register and obtain the National Identity Numbers (NIN) from the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

The correspondent, who visited NIMC office in Ikotun, Alimosho LGA, revealed that hundreds of residents were seen waiting to be attended to, many of them claimed that they got to the office as early as 6 a.m. to queue, they had their names recorded in a list and were given numbers.

Mr Adekunle Adewole, one of the residents, said that he arrived the place as early as 6 a.m. to enable him to get a number, saying it was his third attempt to be registered, to no avail.

“This is my third effort for this registration, the last time I came, I was asked to come back on April 2, and to ensure they attended to me I came here about 6.10 a.m, only to notice that the whole place was already filled with people,’’ he said.

Adewole said he got number 55 and prayed it would get to his turn before the close of work, appealing to government to provide more working devices for the officials to attend to multitude of Nigerians, who want to obtain the NIN cards.

Adewole, however, expressed disappoint at the attitude of staffers of NIMC. “When they resumed they discarded the list of names, claiming that they had lost it and had to start the process of name writing all over again”.

Adewole asked in frustration, “why did we wake up early to queue?”

A 65-year old grandmother, Mrs Abibat Adekanbi, corroborated the account of Adewole, adding that the people were exposed to undue suffering just to register for NIN.

Ms Omolola Bello, another resident, said that she had been coming to the office for registration since 2023 without success, saying government should look into the challenges affecting the operations of the agency to make the exercise seamless.

An official of NIMC, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that they would only attend to those booked since Feb. 19.

“We are attending to those we are supposed to have registered on Good Friday, being March 29, but unable to do so due to the public holiday.

“It is very challenging that we keep recording huge number of applicants every day, yet we do not have too many hands and equipment, all we promise is to keep pushing while appealing for patience from the applicants,” she said.

She also complained of the activities of touts, who she claimed had infiltrated the place as agents to exploit applicants, noting that no NIMC official had the backing of the management to collect money.

NAN observed that some agents were collecting between N5,000 and N10,000 to fast track the process for some applicants, while those without such amount waited helplessly for their turn.