A lone stage protest has been observed by a Lagos based human right lawyer malcom omirhobo on Wednesday at the headquarters of independent national electoral commission (INEC) Abuja, against the usi of National identification number (NIN) as data base for elections in Nigeria.
The lawyer said the process has been compromised and doesn't represent the true demographic of the country.
The lawyer has hereby submitted a formal letter to the commission Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, stating in the letter that the procedure for registration of the NIN violated the provisions of sections 25,26, and 27 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Furthermore the lawyer added that doing this doesn't give room for profile of the applicants and also Verification of the documents submitted by them unlike in the case of International passport and Bank verification number (BVN).
WHAT HAS BEEN SAID
"Our porous borders have not help matters as day in, day out Africans from other African countries enter into Nigeria because of our poorly manned borders and corrupt border guards. Many of these illegal aliens now have the NIN and are ipso facto Nigerian citizens.
"The negative effect of the abuse of the ECOWAS protocol on free movement on the registration exercise of the NIN in Nigeria cannot be over emphasised.
"Also, why the NIN must not be used in Nigeria for any purpose is the inability of the person in charge of its registration, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications & Digital Economy to clear himself of his involvement with terrorist sects like Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Boko Haram, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) and the failure, refusal and/or neglect of the Nigerian Government to make him defend himself.
"The government has shielded and defended him, refusing to fire him, notwithstanding that the generality of Nigerians have lost confidence in the said minister’s continue handling of sensitive data of the country."
The lawyer however submitted that it would be criminal, unlawful, and unconstitutional for the electoral body to use the NIN as data base for any election in the country.
"Applicants are not profiled by the police, the Department of State Services or the Immigration Service. The process of obtaining NIN is not thorough or watertight.
"The personnel receiving data are not trained for the job, neither are data submitted by applicants verified to their residence and to the local government level to ascertain their veracity," he added.
