Continued assault on NIMC and threat to citizens

1. Is your data as a citizen at risk with the Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC)?

Act No 23 of 2007 mandates NIMC to establish, own, operate, maintain, and manage the National Identity Database in Nigeria. Its tasks include citizen registration, assigning a Unique National Identification Number (NIN), and issuing a General Multi-Purpose Card to citizens.

Citizen Gbenga Sesan of Paradigm Initiative alleged that hackers compromised the NIMC website. He partnered with the investigative journalism platform FIJ. They bought the NIN details of the minister of communication, Dr Bosun Tijani and another senior official for only N100 each.

Sesan’s alarm followed an initial one in March 2024. however, NIMC issued a disclaimer, assuring citizens that their data was safe. Kayode Adegoke, Head of Corporate Communication, signed the statement where NIMC:

1. “Assured that the data of Nigerians has not been compromised”.
2. NIMC did not authorise any website or entity to sell or misuse the NIN
3. Identified websites that “are data harvesters not authorised by NIMC to access or manage sensitive data.
4. Data harvesters are idfinder.com.ng; Verify.Ng/sign in, championtech.com.ng, trustyonline.com, and anyverify.com
5. Advised Nigerians “to avoid giving their data to unauthorised and phishing sites. This poses the danger of data harvesting and comprises individual data.”

Minister Bosun Tijani said he spoke with the supervising minister of NIMC, Mr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the Minister of Interior, on Wednesday, June 26. He disclosed that the two ministries are tackling the challenge. This was a tacit admission of the integrity of the Paradigm Initiative and FIJ charge.

Meanwhile, citizens shared this flier online. It is full of grammatical errors that should raise a red flag.

Read also: NIMC gets heat for data breaches, commission fingers 5 illegal websites

*NIMC CORRECTION PORTAL IS OPEN*

Due to the high level of complain, the Federal Government have urge NIMC to open up their *CORRECTION PORTAL* and attend to the complaints of *bonafide citizens of Nigeria* and Correction is FREE.

*Choose the correction you want to make*

*NAME CORRECTION*
*https://tr.ee/Nimc-Portal-For-Correction*

*DATE OF BIRTH CORRECTION*
*https://tr.ee/Nimc-Portal-For-Correction*

*GENDER CORRECTION*
*https://tr.ee/Nimc-Portal-For-Correction*

*OTHERS*
*https://tr.ee/Nimc-Portal-For-Correction*

2. Abia State ex-HOS sues Facebook writers for defamation

Social media has been a crucial staging post for the post-election wars in Abia State. It has now moved to court as the immediate past Acting Head of Service, Lady Joy Maduka, filed an N100 million libel claim against Facebook warriors Nwokeukwu Mascot Nnamdi and Bethel Agbara.

Governor Alex Otti recently retired Lady Maduka on 14 June in a notice signed by her successor, Mrs Queen Obioma. The circular did not specify any reason; it simply stated that it was a directive from the Governor.

In the suit, she claims the accused falsely accused her on their Facebook pages of embezzling N20 million and diverting N13 million in public funds.

Suit HU/23/2024 before the State High Court in Umuahia claims the posts exposed her to “public scandal, odium, and ridicule”.

Nwabueze Chukwueke of NCN & Partners Law firm argues that the alleged “libellous publication has lowered and diminished the estimation of the Claimant in the eyes of right-thinking members of the society, including but not limited to her friends, business associates and family members”.

Read also: Kenya’s Ruto withdraws controversial tax bill amid protests

3. The $2.7 billion Kenyan protests.

Nigerian social media platforms have followed the protests in Kenya by groups led by young people against the parliament and the executive arm.

The 2024 Finance Bill, which sought to raise USD 2.7 billion, spurred the protests. The bill provided for additional taxes to reduce Kenya’s budget deficit. Unpopular provisions in the budget were removed, including levies on bread, money transfers, motor vehicle insurance and locally manufactured goods. Higher import taxes and infrastructure development levies remain in place.

On Wednesday, 26 June 2024, President William Ruto withdrew the bill and budget following bloody encounters between the police and protesters.
A trending video showed one of the young arrowheads of the protests articulating the case. https://streamable.com/bije1z

4. Invasion of Fulani fighters to Kwara and Kogi?

Fact-free narratives trended on social media about a large battalion of Fulani soldiers imported into Nigeria and headed to Kwara and Kogi states. The author credited BBC News with the story.
Luckily, on one of the platforms, BBC Correspondent Adline Okere punctured the falsehood and issued a caveat.

Okere: “I have seen it flying around in some other groups. Can you check if it is a fact before sharing it? Also, remember that Nigeria’s Anti-Social Media Bill prescribes N300,000, three years imprisonment, or both, for individuals who spread untrue, partly true, or malicious information.
On behalf of the Hausa Service, BBC could decide to sue for this.”

Read also:  Kano emirate crisis: Court set aside amended law dethroning Aminu Bayero as emir

Angst over traditional stools in Kano and Sokoto

The traditional institutions in some states received significant attention.

The Kano State government threatened to pull down the palace extension occupied by the Emir Bayero that the governor deposed in favour of returning Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.

The Sokoto State governor denied any plans to move against the Sultan of Sokoto, but the State House of Assembly worked on a bill to reduce the Sultan’s power and influence.

It extended to Rivers State, where Governor Sim Fubara changed the chairman of the Rivers State traditional rulers’ council. He accused Sergeant Awuse of insubordination to the governor and cited the case of printing an almanac that did not include a picture of the governor, as is tradition. Moves and actions in Rivers State all come under the interpretive lens of the pitched battle between Fubara, the godson, and FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, the godfather.

The Rivers State battle over resources

The battle over control of Rivers State’s resources continued last week and shifted to local government administration.

Twenty-three interim administrators of local governments refused to leave office after the statutory expiration of their terms. They are members of the Nyesom Wike branch of the political divide.

The matter has featured fights, allegations of bias against the Nigerian Police for barricading the council secretariats and marches by followers of both sides. State Governor Siminalayi Fubara upped the ante when he accused the opposition of sponsoring a failed bomber. He said the bomber sought vainly to ignite the Hotel Presidential on Aba Road in the city centre as federal legislators visiting the state lodged there. The goal was to use the incident as proof to declare a state of emergency, he claimed.