Benue residents have continued to groan over the hardship they are experiencing in the course of registering for National Identification Number, (NIN).
Meanwhile, inadequate enrollment systems are said to be responsible for the low number of registration of people for the National Identification Number (NIN) in Benue.
A staff who pleaded not to be named told the Next Edition at the NIMC office in Makurdi that the equipment required for the NIN registration are not enough.
“The capacity is too low for the number of people that come in here. In a day, we have nothing less than 600 to 700 people coming in with only five enrollment systems. So, practically, they are inadequate for the job.”
He added that there are only 26 registration centers across the 23 local government areas of of the state saying that, “by implication, all the 23 local governments of the state has registration centers particularly within the state secretariat while there are four centers within Makurdi which we refer to as special enrollment centers.”
Our source said although staff are officially supposed to close by 4p.m everyday, they had to work till 7p.m and sometimes till 9pm including weekends.
“We also make sure that COVID-19 safety protocols are being followed strictly.”
According to him, enrolling one person does not take more than five minutes except times when some technical hitches would not allow generation of data immediately.
While he expressed fears that the registration might take more time that necessary, he however, said they were trying their best and hoping that they would attend to everyone.
“In the state office, we attend to about 500 persons per day while over 3,000 persons are also enrolled from across the state. So we are going to reduce the crowd soon.”
He, however, denied allegation of sale of forms to prospective enrollees saying, “at times when staff put a stop to issuance of form or when we say we are no longer giving, the desperate people that have got our forms will begin to sell it to people. That is how money comes in.
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“We are working inside and we won’t know that such transaction is going on outside. So what you hear is actually not coming from us.
“Some people are trading with what we are doing. The applicants themselves are the ones selling the form they are already given. Then the next day they still come back.
He urged Benue people to remain patient and calm saying everybody would be captured within the stipulated time frame if everyone remains orderly.
“They should be patient with us. We are trying our best. Our best may not be good enough but they should be very very patient because misbehaviour slows us down but orderliness makes us take one step after another and we keep going.
He also dispelled the rumour that registration will soon close saying, “NIN registration is a continuous process and does not end. NIN registration is a continuous process so long as Nigerians are still giving birth to children.”
Meanwhile, when the Next Edition visited NIMC head office in Makurdi, most of the people enrolled were seen sitting under a tree while others who were on the queue were seen sweating profusely under the sun from long hours of wait.
A lady who identified herself as Terkura Nengi said she had spent two days at the Makurdi office and was yet to register as at the time she spoke to this reporter.
She called on the staff at the NIMC office to speed up the process a little to enable them get registered.
