Lagos residents groan as officials collect N3000 for national identity card registration amidst endless queue

…District head appeals for establishment of registration points in secondary schools
Mojisola Lawal
As long queue persists in almost all the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, registration centres across the Lagos, residents have expressed displeasure over distortion by officials of the commission who demanded as low as N3000 from them before they could be registered or spend the whole day in the scorching sun and not being registered as the end of the day.

Speaking with newsexplorersng.com, a 19-year-old secondary school leaver who simply identified herself as Mistura explained the pain she suffered in the hands of officials at the Yaba LCDA.
Mistura who disclosed that she urgently require the ID card to facilitate her JAMB registration exercise said, “I went to Yaba LCDA with my mother to be registered for the national identity card but discovered that there were long queue.

But before we could decide on the next line of action, one of the officials of the commission approached us. He offered to help us to get through with the registration very fast if we could pay N3000 per registration.

We were shocked to hear this. And since paying for the registration wasn’t part of our plan, we decided to join the queue where we were till late in the night without being registered. We left home and return the following to pay the required N3000 and surprisingly, I was registered instantly.”

Another resident in Ikotun area of Lagos, Joshua Olawale shared similar experience as he said to be registered at the NIMC registration centre located beside Synagogue Church of All Nation, Ikotun, residents have to be at the centre as early as 2am.

Joshua who claimed he got at the Ikotun registration centre of the NIMC at 5am on Thursday, January 9, 2019 only to meet scores of residents at the gate unattended to said “I left my home in Mowe, Ogun state only to be confronted with a large crowd of residents who were there for the registration exercise.

I was number 148 on the list which was prepared by policemen stationed at the Prophet’s T.B Joshua’s church. Unfortunately, when officials had registered 100 persons whose names were on the list, they sent all of us home. It is hard to believe that I have been on this registration thing since 2017 but till now I have not getting through with it.”

While Joshua lamented amount of productive hours wasted on wanting to be registered which ended in futility, another resident in Ile-Iwe, Ikotun, Amosu Lawal, a university admission seeker complained about the negative impacts of spending unnecessary hours at national identity registration points on his studies.

He said, “Since June 2019, I have been going back and forth and visiting various registration centres without any meaningful outcome. The national identity card is a mandatory requirement for JAMB registration which is closing soon and here I am not able to be registered. I have not been able to study for the examination too.

I am appealing to the government to relax the policy which makes national ID card as a requirement for JAMB, time is fast spent and many of us have not prepared for the exams due to the long hours spent at registration locations across the state.”

Meanwhile, district head of Otumara 11, Apapa road, Ojo-oniyun and its environs, High Chief Kehinde Kalejaiye has appealed to the Federal Government to review the national identity card registration policies which made it mandatory for JAMB registration and establish registration points in Secondary Schools across states in the country.

Kalejaiye stated this while commenting on the stress residents and JAMB applicants are subjected to at the Yaba LCDA in their bid to get themselves captured.

He said, “Our government needs to be more responsive to the plight of citizens. They need not wait till circumstance gets out of control before it is addressed. For instance, the crowd at almost every registration centres across Lagos state is alarming and to make the matter worse, they are largely constituted with JAMB applicants who rather than study for the exams, spend their quality time roaming the registration aimlessly.

I want to implore the Federal Government and the ministry of the interior to urgently look into this matter and not wait until stampede occurs before they could react. It will make much sense if students could be captured in their schools and not made to stress themselves out at various locations.

I don’t know if you have observed that bulk of applicants at registration venues are students and those adult that require the national identity cards for bank use.

But it is troubling to see that the situation is not improving at all because on a daily basis the numbers of applicants are increasing and registration officials are feeding fat and extorting applicants. So I am appealing to the government to address these needs.”

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