…Extort registrants
Staffers of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in Rivers State, have joined their counterparts in other states of the country to embark on an indefinite strike.
A visit to the commission’s office on Aba Road in Port Harcourt and a few other centres around Port Harcourt and Obio/Akpor local government areas, revealed that hundreds of persons who had coverged on the centres to participate in the registration process as early as 5am, were stranded.
The registrants were told by the aggrieved staff that they would not be attended to as a result of the industrial action.
One of the workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained that the staff of the agency took the decision to go on strike to demand better welfare package from the government.
According to him, the recent increase in the number of visitors at the office and other centres for registration of National Identification Number (NIN) has caused a lot of stress for the workers.
He added that the workers needed to be paid more for conducting the exercise, which he described as an extra duty.
They decried the lack of protective kits at the office, saying they could get infected with Covid-19 as they attend to hundreds of residents daily.
The situation at the NIMC office has left many residents stranded, including the elderly, pregnant women, and mothers who had gone there with their children.
Despite the development, the residents have failed to return to their homes, saying they were not notified that the workers would down tools.
They, however, continued to keep watch at the NIMC office with the hope that the striking workers would have a change of heart and attend to them.
It was learnt that the staff of the National Identity Management Commission embarked on the indefinite nation-wide strike to demand better welfare packages from the Federal Government.
The workers are protesting poor salary structure, lack of promotion and lack of personal protective equipment (PPEs) for prevention of Covid-19, among others.
It was gathered that some of the staff who contracted the virus were rejected by the management of the agency.
The strike followed a directive issued by the NIMC unit of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ACSN).
The National Task Force on NIN and SIM registration met on December 21, 2020, and agreed on three weeks registration which ends on January 19, 2021.
A notice of the strike signed by the President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), NIMC branch, Comrade Lucky Michael, and its Secretary, Comrade Odia Victor, respectively directed that members on grade level 12 and below to report to their respective duty posts and “do nothing”.
“All members at the local government offices and special centres are advised to stay away from their various centres as task force and implementation committees would be on parade to ensure total compliance to the directive,” the statement read.
According to a communique, the union is angry over the state of NIMC enrollment centres across the country, especially in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, exposure of staff to Covid-19 risks, lack of personal protective equipment, irregularities in promotion, and poor funding.
The notice noted that staff members have been infected with the virus and that measures have not been put in place to curtail the spread.
“Staff members were infected with Covid-19 and adequate measures have not been taken to curtail the spread,” the unionists said.
The union also demanded to be paid overtime, and given enough tools to work with.
Meanwhile, despite the federal government’s directive that the National Identity Card Number registration should be free, officers in charge of the registration exercise at St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Mile 1, Diobu, Port Harcourt, were said to be extorting the applicants, forcing them to pay N500 for each registration form, in total disregard of the federal government’s directive.
A woman who was at the registration center there revealed this to newsmen.
The woman said she got there around 10 a.m. and was asked to wait. She said when she saw people giving the officials money, she thought it was freewill dash. But when it got to her turn, they told her to pay N500.
According to her, when she asked what the N500 was for, they told her it was the cost of the NIN registration form. She said when she replied them that she heard it was free, one of them got angry and said it was like she wanted to teach them their job.
The woman said at that stage, she left the place and vowed not to return there. She said she had lost interest in the entire exercise.
