From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has said that his ministry and the agencies under it can not go after criminals using individuals’ details on the National Information Management Commission’s (NIMC) database.
Pantami said tracking and monitoring criminals using the National Identity Number (NIN) is not part of the mandate of his ministry or that of the agencies under it, but that they can only provide such services if required by any of the security agencies.
The minister spoke while fielding questions from journalists at the press conference heralding Digital Nigeria Day 2022 on Monday in Abuja.
According to him, “It is not my mandate. That is why in all the eight priority areas, I have not been given anyone to do with that. We only initiated it (NIN) to support security institutions but it’s not our priority. It is only out of patriotism we did it. If you provided food to your visitor, whether he eats or not is your issue. What is important is to provide. We have provided, we have sanitised the database. We made it mandatory. Whether they utilise it or not is not my responsibility to go and investigate.
“It is not our mandate to start tracking, saying this is a criminal. We are not a security institution. Our job is only to provide a platform for them, which we have done voluntarily. Whether they utilise it or not, I don’t know. But I have never been contacted. There is no crime that has been committed in which we failed to provide either the details required or the location.
Pantami however, stated that there have been certain success stories associated with the NIN which are not disclosed to the public for confidentiality and security purposes.
“There was a certain thing that happened in Abuja, through that database, it was curtailed 100%. But we cannot explain the processes and strategies so that we don’t compromise. And security issues are not for media briefings like this. They are highly strategic and confidential,” he said.