New Telegraph

NIN registration: Trivails of enrolees

In Ebonyi State, the on-going National Identity Number registration is marred by pay-as-you-come, sharp practices, inadequate machines, lack of enough centres for the exercise and poor network. These have continued to threaten the exercise as UCHENNA INYA in Abakaliki reports

Dr. Brown Ozichukwu and his four other family members have spent more than a week at Umuobuna Primary School Registration centre, Uburu community in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State to get registered but to no avail.

He reportedly paid the sum of N3, 000 to the NIMC officials handling the registration exercise at the centre. The Umuobuna Primary School centre is the only centre where the registration is taking place in the whole Ohaozara Local Government Area.

Every day, over 5,000 persons within and outside the community and the local government usually besiege the centre which has only one machine to get registered. Since one week, Ozichukwu and his four children who are studying overseas have been going to the centre every 2am to get registered after the NIMC officials allegedly collected N3,000 from them.

The frustrated and angry Ozichukwu told our correspondent, who monitored the registration exercise in some of the centres in the state that after last Saturday’s attempt, which made it one week he has been going to the centre, he would stop going for the registration exercise.

His words: “I have witnessed a lot of corrupt practices in the exercise here. All my children are schooling in overseas and they have stopped schools due to this coronavirus. I decided to use this period to do the NIN registration for them and I hate bribery; I don’t like it.

I have been coming here for over one week and they kept refusing to register me and my children because we don’t compromise. They kept keeping me outside and bringing in people they like into the hall for the registration and register them. “All my children have been coming here for four days to get registered because if they go back to overseas, there is no way they can register for the NIN. So, I have been struggling to ensure they register before they go back to overseas for their studies but the NIN officials have refused to register them and myself.

“I have filled many forms without being registered. The first form I filled, I was asked by one of the officials of NIN to put money inside the form to get registered and I put the sum of N3,000. We were not registered and they destroyed the forms we filled.

They have eaten the money and I thought that the money they said I should put inside the forms is a normal routine without knowing that it is what they used and manipulate the process. They later asked me to buy another form and my family is a family of five and I bought another form and filled. Despite buying another form, I have been here without being registered. “In Ohaozara here, the exercise is taking place in one place with one computer.

They are in one room there doing whatever they like and nobody sees whatever they are doing. They can get away with all their manipulations. Could it be that they stationed their systems outside and doing the registration in an open place, they will be afraid of collecting all these monies because everybody will be seeing whatever they are doing.”

Chima Beatrice is another frustrated person, who has been battling to get registered at the centre. Before 3am each day, she is already there at the centre, so as to be among those to be registered early to enable her go back home for her other legitimate businesses but she has not registered up till now.

Beatrice has gone to the centre for three days. She paid the sum of N1,000 for the registration apart from the N500 she spends on transport daily to the centre because of the far distance she comes from. Yet, she has not registered. She alleged that the NIMC officials at the centre have suffered people at the centre by not following due process. Beatrice said: “I have been here since 3:am.

They asked us to pay N200 for filling the form, then N100 for collecting the form. Then after collecting the form, you will go inside the hall, they do the registration and pay N500 and extra N100 as pocket money for those that are collecting the form. So, in all, you are expected to pay the sum of N1,000 before you can get registered.

“I feel very sad about the whole thing because we were made to understand by government that the registration is free of charge. Even after collecting monies, they will still point at people to attend to them leaving the people that have paid.

“The transport fare from Okposi Okwu to this registration centre is N500 to and fro and I have been here for three days to get registered and I have not registered as you can see now. Each day, we come here, we continue to look for way they can attend to us after paying what they said we should pay but to no avail. If they look at you and they see that they don’t know you, they will just ignore you and pick the people they like and register them.”

Another person, Chizoba Njoku said: “Today is making it five days I have been coming for my National Identity Card registration and all this while, I normally leave my home by 3:30 am but usually meet a large crowd in this registration.

On Thursday, my number was 93 because they used to give numbers with which they call people for the registration. Because of the crowd that was much, a friend suggested that I should go to Abakaliki, the state capital and do the registration. That it is very easy to do there and I went to Abakaliki.

When I got to Abakaliki, the crowd was much and I had to go home. The following day, I returned to this registration centre and I have not registered since 3:am I came here. Also, Nwali Onyemachi Favour said: “I have been coming since three days ago for National ID card registration because I need National ID card. They told us to be coming early and I used to come at 2am every day. We paid N100 for the form, to fill it is N300.

They will collect another N100 and tell you that it is their pocket money. Since 2am, I have been here to get registered and what they do is they will come outside and select those they like and take them inside the hall.

They do the registration and collect money from the people they selected and then register them. There have been lots of bribery, corruption and favoritism here. I feel very sad because since morning, I have not eaten anything in a bid to ensure that I get registered, whereas they are not doing the right thing for people to get registered. I have been exposing myself to cold since five days I started coming here for this ID card issue registration.

I have been trekking from Okposi Okwu down here to get registered.” Our correspondent met two officials of the NIMC; Obinna Martin, who is the Administration Officer of NIMC, Ohaozara LGA and another official registering people at the centre, who gave his name simply as Ben.

At the initial time, Ben, who spoke to the reporter, refused to talk to the correspondent but when the reporter convinced him on the need to react to the allegations, he denied that there was any form of bribery in the registration exercise.

A young man, after registering successfully inside the hall that is always overcrowded and which is being used for the exercise, openly brought out N500 and gave to Ben but he rejected apparently because of the presence of the journalist.

Ben, while reacting to all the allegations levelled against the NIMC officials, said what is rather happening at the centre was that there is racketeering and that some people organized themselves to be collecting money to assist people to get registered. “They are just doing racketeering; collecting monies from people that want to get registered. When I noticed this, I collected all the forms and tore them.

As you can see, I am sitting down registering people inside this hall. Do I know what is happening within the premises of this hall?. “If they said we are favouring people, we are not doing that. What we do is that if we see very old and sick people, including nursing mothers whose babies are very tender, we bring them inside the hall and register them first before every other persons”. New Telegraph also visited Onicha registration centre located inside the local government headquarters in Isu on Saturday but the exercise was not going on.

The gateman at the headquarters told our correspondent that the NIMC officials posted to the centre only work on working days. At Roban Abakaliki registration centre located in the state capital, the exercise was free from any form of sharp practice but very slow with many people at the centre waiting to be registered. One of those waiting to be registered, Eze John Obasi, said he has stayed at the centre for over 10 hours and has not been registered.

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