Only 30m Nigerians have registered for National ID – Interior Minister

The Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, has lamented that only 30 million Nigerians have so far registered for the National Identity Card.

Aregbesola made the disclosure while responding to questions during a special Town Hall meeting on security in Katsina State on Tuesday.

“30 million Nigerians registered for the National ID cards project.

“I urge Nigerians to respond to this call for proper identification.

“People who have access to mobile phone, their identity should be documented for monitoring.

“Because people are reluctant to go and register for national ID cards, the result is what we are seeing now on insecurity, hence the need for Nigerians to intensify efforts toward reversing the trend,” he said.

The minister also said that the Federal Government has established a Ministry for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management to rehabilitate victims of insecurity challenges and bring support to them.

“That has been the first time in the history of the country when such a Ministry is been established,” he said.

On his part, the Minister of Information, Mr Lai Mohammed, said that the Ministry of Communication had blocked about nine million unregistered Sim cards within the past two months, as part of efforts to tackle insecurity in the country.

Mohammed explained that the town meeting was organised to explain to the people on the successes recorded by the federal and state governments in the fight against insecurity in the Northwest sub region.

He observed that the situation has improved following measures been taken by federal and state governments as highlighted by the governors and ministers at the event.