The federal government has said the ongoing National Identification Number enrolment may be suspended over COVID-19 risks.
It also urged the National Identity Management Commission to go back to the drawing board and re-order the enrolment process to avoid large crowds at its centres nationwide.
Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamora, who is also a member of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 said this on Monday during an interview.
The minister said, “I don’t feel good looking at the picture where people are gathered in multitude; it’s like a superspreader event which we don’t like. But I’m also aware that the relevant ministry which is the communications and digital economy is looking at this.
“My understanding is that the whole process may be suspended so as to reorder the whole process in terms of management of the crowd because it was never intended that it would become a rowdy process like that.”
Mamora added, “We have a duty as government to ensure that people are protected; we also have a duty to ensure people comply within the limit of what is good for the society at large.”
Recall that the, Federal Government through the Nigerian Communication Commission had ordered telecommunications companies to deactivate telephone lines of subscribers who failed to link their phones to their National Identity Number.
