The Director-General of the National Identity Management Commission, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, has explained why terrorists and kidnappers are not always traceable through the National Identification Number system despite its role in Nigeria’s security architecture.
Speaking during an interview on Sunday Politics on Channels Television, Coker-Odusote said kidnappers often avoid detection by using the mobile phones of their victims instead of their own registered lines.
She said, “We already know the NIN is the foundational identity for the security architecture, but a lot of the time, you find out the kidnappers use the phones of the people they have abducted, which means how do you trace them because they are not using their own phones?”
“There is a theory that it may be possible that these kidnappers are not Nigerians and are brought into the country 48 or 72 hours before a kidnapping takes place, specifically for that purpose. I’m not insinuating anything, but if that were the case, they naturally would not be captured in our database. Those are some of the scenarios we have.”
She maintained that while the NIN remains central to Nigeria’s identity and security framework, criminals often adopt tactics that make tracking them more difficult, including using devices and SIM cards belonging to their victims.
The National Identification Number is an 11-digit unique identity number issued by the National Identity Management Commission to Nigerians and legal residents under the National Identity Management Commission Act, 2007.
The number serves as the country’s foundational digital identity and is used to verify individuals across government and private sector services.
The Federal Government has made the NIN central to its security strategy through the mandatory linkage of SIM cards to the NIN, a policy aimed at strengthening identity verification, improving investigations and curbing crimes.
The NIN is also required for services such as passport applications, bank account opening, driver’s licence processing and access to several government programmes.
However, NIMC has consistently maintained that the NIN is an identity management system, not a surveillance tool, and that tracking criminals depends on collaboration between security agencies, telecom operators and other relevant institutions.
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