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NIMC Warns Against Fake NIN Number

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The National Identity Management Commission says it has uncovered a syndicate of individuals posing as staff of the commission and issuing fake National Identity Numbers to unsuspecting Nigerians.

It said some offenders have been arrested and are undergoing prosecution with relevant security agencies.

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The NIMC Director General, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, disclosed this at a press briefing on Friday in Abuja.

Odusote at the briefing also announced that over 107.34 million Nigerians have been enrolled into the NIN database as of May 2024 from 104m recorded in December 2023.

The NIN, a unique identifier assigned to each citizen, has gained prominence in recent years as the cornerstone of various government initiatives aimed at enhancing security, governance, and service delivery.

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READ ALSO: NIMC Clears Air On New National ID Card

Detailing their modus operandi, the Director General explained that these individuals masquerade as business vendors and cyber cafes, crafting links for unsuspecting individuals, developing software, and fabricating fake NINs. “This data doesn’t reach our server, resulting in numerous Nigerians falling victim to scams,” she said.

She said a further clampdown led to the discovery of a group of individuals around its annexe office.

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The NIMC boss, however, declined to disclose details on the number of persons being interrogated but assured that as soon as the investigation is concluded they would be charged to court for cybercrimes.

Odusote said, “I am going to speak on extortion, data breach and privacy. When we carried out our investigations, we discovered that around NIMC’s offices, people were parading as business vendors and cyber cafes, creating links for unsuspecting persons, designing software and generating fake NINs for people.

“This data does not come to our server and a lot of Nigerians have been scammed. We record an influx of crowd, people coming into the office telling us that they registered but we can’t find their data on the system. We have a lot of these instances with citizens claiming to have paid money to people who do not have any connection to NIMC.

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READ ALSO: NIMC To Launch App For NIN Self Registration – DG

“They (offenders) have perfected the act of trying to mimic what NIMC does. So we decided to clamp down on these people and have arrested offenders. These persons don’t have any connection with the commission at all. We don’t have any internal data breaches because we have one of the best in the world.

“We will not allow them to parade as if they are part of us and they are not. A lot of people have lost money through this method.”

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He added that the commission got wind of the issue after a customer complained that she had paid N120,000 to modify her birth certificate.

There is a case I got at our annexe office and a lady approached me telling me that she had been extorted of over N120,000 to modify her birth certificate. And the person who extorted her is not a NIMC staff and all he does is create a fake birth certificate and other documents for a fee. This is part of the reason we decided to digitise our operations.”

She added that efforts have also reached the advanced stage for Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government to harmonise their identity database with NIMC for the country to have a Central Identity database.

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READ ALSO: NIMC Reacts As Army Arrests Two ‘Fake’ Officials Enrolling People In Niger Republic

The DG further stated within the next nine months the commission will upgrade the capacity of its database from 100 million to 250 million.

Nigeria needs to exit keeping multiple identities of citizens in silos through different agencies, we must have a central system, and that is why we are upgrading our infrastructures.

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“Obtaining NIN should be within a minimum period especially when our system has been upgraded, and we are building capacity at all levels from the network infrastructure perspective to software areas down to the database.

“We are working on increasing the capacity that we have, we are trying to increase from 100million to 250million, and the process will take us a minimum of 6 months to 9 months. But we are sure we will be there,” Coke-Odusote said.

On the General Multipurpose National Identity Card, she noted that Nigerians will have to pay a certain amount of money to get the new card when it’s launched through finance institutions in the country.

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She said, “Just like how you pay to access your ATM cards in the banks, Nigerians will pay through the banks to access their cards within 48 hours after payment to get the digital multipurpose card.”

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BREAKING: Tinubu Appoints New Federal Fire Service Boss

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President Bola Tinubu has approved the appointment of Adeyemi Olumode, as the new Federal Fire Service, FFS, Controller-General.

The appointment was announced on Wednesday on behalf of the Federal Government by retired Maj.-Gen Abdulmalik Jubril, Secretary of the Civil, Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board, CDCFIB.

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Jubril said the appointment followed the retirement of the current Controller-General, Abdulganiyu Jaji, on August 13.

Jaji is retiring upon attaining the age of 60 by August 13.

READ ALSO: JUST IN: Tinubu Confers National Honours On Super Falcons

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Jibril further disclosed said that Adeyemi Olumode is qualified for the position, having attended and passed all mandatory in-service training, Command courses as well as other courses within and outside the country.

He brings a wealth of experience to his new role, having transferred his service from the FCT Fire Service to the Federal Fire Service and grown to the rank of DCG in the Human Resource Directorate of the Service Headquarters.

“He has served in various capacities and is equally a member/fellow of the following professional associations including Association of National Accountants of Nigeria, ANAN, Institute of Corporate Administration of Nigeria, Institute of Public Administration of Nigeria and Chartered Institute of Treasury Management of Nigeria.”

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[OPINION] Northern Amnesia: Governor Sani, The Table Shaker

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By Israel Adebiyi

When truth is buried underground, it grows, it chokes, it gathers such explosive force that on the day it bursts out, it blows up everything with it.”
— Émile Zola

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There’s a kind of silence that settles over the land after years of failure. A silence made of shame, denial, and carefully chosen half-truths. In Northern Nigeria, that silence has become an institution — polite, predictable, and profoundly dangerous.

Then came Uba Sani — with words that cut through like harmattan wind.

At a recent citizen engagement summit in Kaduna, Governor Uba Sani did what few northern politicians have ever dared. He faced the region and told it the truth: “We failed our people.” Not they. We. All of us who have held power in the North in the past two decades, he said, must offer the people an apology.

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In that single moment, he shattered the convenient forgetfulness the North has grown used to. He didn’t call out Abuja. He didn’t drag the South. He didn’t blame some vague colonial past or “outsiders.” He pointed the finger inward — and included himself.

That is no small thing. That is not politics. That is an act of courage.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Protesting Police Pensioners And Fela’s Double Wahala Melody

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Because what Governor Sani spoke to is not just political miscalculation. It’s a generational betrayal. A betrayal that has left too many Northern children unschooled, too many women dying in childbirth, too many communities in darkness, and too many homes listening for the next gunshot.

Let’s stop for a moment and look at the evidence — not the emotion, but the math.

According to the 2022 National Multidimensional Poverty Index, nine of the ten poorest states in Nigeria are in the North. In Sokoto, over 90% of people live in poverty. Kebbi, Zamfara, Jigawa — same story. We’re not just failing; we’ve normalized failure.

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And yet, this is the region that has held the most power in Nigeria since independence. Presidents. Military heads of state. Senators. Generals. Governors. Ministers. National Security Advisers. We’ve produced them all. But not the outcomes.

We’ve built palaces in Abuja, but not a working school in Shinkafi. We’ve padded budgets but abandoned hospitals in Birnin Kebbi. In some states, over 60% of children aged 6–15 have never seen the inside of a classroom. What kind of leadership allows this?

Northern mothers still die in delivery rooms at three times the national average, according to the latest NDHS report. Some rural health centres don’t even have paracetamol. The elites fly abroad. The poor bury their dead.

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MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: [OPINION] BUHARI: The Man Who Missed Redemption

Security? Forget it. From Zamfara to Katsina to Niger, bandits have made homes out of forests. Whole villages are ghost towns. And yet, most of the top military chiefs in the last decade came from this region. Who, then, is to blame?

Let’s talk money. The North is land-rich but cash-poor. While Lagos alone contributes over 30% to Nigeria’s GDP, most northern states struggle to hit 1%. But the same northern governors go cap-in-hand for federal allocation and call it development. Where are the industries? Where is the productivity?

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This is what Sani is shaking — a region that has grown comfortable with underdevelopment and allergic to self-reflection.

Some elites have pushed back, of course. Former senators and political juggernauts who built their careers on recycled loyalty have tried to downplay his remarks. They say he was too harsh. That he forgot their “service”. That he shouldn’t “wash dirty linen in public.”

But if that linen hasn’t been washed for 40 years, where should it be aired?

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MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Protesting Police Pensioners And Fela’s Double Wahala Melody

Let’s be honest — it is easier to blame Buhari, or Tinubu, or the South. But Sani refuses the easy route. He says: we, the North, are not victims here. We are architects of our own decline.

He refuses to play the amnesia game.

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You can feel the discomfort in the air. He has stepped on toes — and many of those toes wear agbadas. But the truth is not about comfort. It’s about course correction.

This isn’t about just Uba Sani. It’s about whether the North still has the capacity to face its reflection. To see the rot — and clean house. To stop building dynasties and start building schools. To stop naming roads after ancestors and start giving roads to rural farmers.

Too many of our children are stuck in almajiri cycles while the children of the elite occupy UK universities. Too many of our mothers die in labor while wives of past governors set up foundations for photo-ops. Too many old names have stayed too long — and are grooming their sons for the throne.

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That is what Governor Sani is fighting: not just silence, but the inheritance of silence.

He says, “Let’s apologise.” But apology alone is not enough. It must be backed with a plan. A Marshall Plan for the North — real investment, not campaign slogans. Functional education, not workshops. Security that protects, not retaliates. Jobs that empower, not enslave.

It must come with the rethinking of what power is: not title, not convoy, not prayer photos — but legacy measured in lives changed, not lives lost.

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Governor Sani’s voice may be lonely now. But history listens to such voices. And perhaps, just perhaps, in that lone voice, the North might find a new beginning.

Because silence, when it becomes tradition, is nothing but consent.

And now, one man has dared to shout.

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Edo Assures Pensioners Of Improved Welfare, Universal Health Coverage

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The government of Edo State has assured pensioners in the state of improved welfare and universal health coverage.

The state deputy governor, Hon. Dennis Idahosa gave the assurance in Benin on Tuesday, during a courtesy visit to his office by members of the Edo State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP).

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In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Friday Aghedo, Idahosa assured the pensioners of Monday Okpebholo’s led administration commitment to improving on the welfare of all citizens.

Idahosa said that the government remains upbeat and committed toward representing the interest of pensioners.

READ ALSO: Choice Of Dennis Idahosa As Deputy Gave Us Victory- Okpebholo

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“The Governor is committed towards the welfare of the pensioners of Edo State,” he stated.

Idahosa, who reacted to a request concerning the need to expedite payments of outstanding arrears to already screened pensioners cutting across local government and state level, pointed out, “The Governor is keen at clearing all outstanding arrears.”

Simirlarly, the assured that the pensioners of benefitting from the state universal health coverage.

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He concluded with the assurance that the governor’s work would soon be visible to all across the state.

READ ALSO:Idahosa Optimistic Shaibu Will Perform As National Sports Institute DG

The State Chairman of Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Comrade Samuel Okhuelegbe, who spoke on behalf of his executive, enumerated challenges of the union, which includes meager amount received as pension

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He commended the state government for setting up a committee to review the Contributory Pension Scheme.

The essence is to narrow the yawning gap in monthly pensions between counterparts, under the contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) as well as define benefits of the scheme.

“Though the report of the committee has long been submitted, the final outcome of the report should be considered in the interest of affected pensioners,” he appealed

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He, however, sued for improved benefits for retirees going by the improved minimum wage as applicable to workers in Edo State.

 

 

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