By Ahmed Rahma
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has described news of the alleged breach of the national identity database as false.
In a statement on Wednesday titled NIMC Data Not Breached, the spokesman of the agency, Mr Kayode Adegoke, noted that the reported breach of its database on social media was also a hoax with mischievous intent.
According to the statement, “The commission investigated the data breach claim and found out that the database schema presented by the adversary does not tally with the existing schema of NIMC records.
“The data being posted by criminals purporting to contain citizens’ information is fake.
“The NIMC would like to assure the public that there have been no such breaches or incidents.
“The NIMC guarantees the security of the National Identity Database through various layers of security and can assure that no data was breached.”
The federal government through the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) had last week ordered telecommunications companies to deactivate telephone lines of subscribers who failed to link their phones to their National Identification Number (NIN).
As of October, the total number of mobile network connections was 207.58 million, but currently, only 43 million Nigerians have NIN, thus, 164 million telephone users are at the risk of being deactivated on January 19, 2021.
Large crowd thronging the NIMC web portal for the process of obtaining their NIN led to the crash of the portal on Monday.
Many people, who wanted to print the enrollment form, which is a major requirement for registering for the number, were unable to do so and got stranded.
Some Nigerians have also expressed concerns for the privacy and safety of their data, but NIMC has allayed their fears, assuring Nigerians that the data in its possession is safe.
