IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

Speaking with journalists yesterday in Kuje, the Head of Administration, LEA, Mr. Ado Babatakwa, said that the objective of the exercise was to screen and find out the actual number of staff in the authority’s employ.

According to him, the exercise is taking place when the schools are on holiday, so as to have full attention of the teachers.

The Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Community Development, Alhaji Isa Bawa, who is the chairman of the committee, told reporters that it would, among others, refocus, rejuvenate and further reposition the local government administration in the state to enable government accomplish the objectives for which it was established.

The verification exercise is being carried out in 16 Local Government areas in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

The exercise, which will last for two weeks, will see 9,200 retired civil servants and 34 retired judicial officers having their biometric data captured in order to ward off ghost pensioners.

On the other hand, when there are such distress calls, the Police cannot run to the FRSC for immediate action, hence there is need for the Police to have its own data readily available and that can be transmitted in the heat of the moment. That is why the Police desire to have its own records to assist it in stemming the tide of car snatching and such other challenges.

Chris Onyemenam, the Director General, National Identity Management Commission, the guest speaker at the April edition of Information Value Chain Breakfast Forum, stated this at a monthly breakfast forum organised by Digital Jewels Limited. He said registration had already begun in Lagos and Abuja.

The Director General of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) Barr Chris Onyemenam who disclosed this in Abuja at the stakeholder's workshop on Biometrics, Demographics Data Standards and Verification Procedures for the National Identity Management System (NIMS) said the commission is targeting more than 150 million Nigerians for registration in the pilot six locations.

Onyemenam said on Sunday at the forum of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, that multiplicity of identification had been a major challenge facing the commission.

To achieve the target, the Director General, NIMC, Dr. Chris Onyemenam, said the Commission would establish collaboration with all the 774 local government areas in the country under, the aegis of the Association of Local Government of Nigeria, ALGON. Stressing the need for the collaboration while speaking at the pre-summit meeting of first Local Government Areas Summit on the National Identity Management System in Abuja.

The minister made this known during an interactive session with energy correspondents in Lagos.

Mr. Nnaji said that based on the agreement reached with the union to increase the salary of its members by 50 per cent, there was need to subject them to biometrics verification, an exercise, which, he noted, had commenced before the union stopped the process.

State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr. Yiljap Abraham, who disclosed this yesterday while speaking with journalists, attributed the continuous lack of proper accounting of funds for developing the state to the fraud.

Abraham said that the ghost workers were discovered after a biometric verification exercise was carried out by the state government, adding that after earlier committees set up by the government to determine the strength of the state workforce had put the figure at between 17,000 and 18, 000 workers, the governor became alarmed that despite the fact that there had been no new employment, the figure kept rising.

When the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, announced last week that it had postponed the deadline for the registration of its new biometric number plates and driver’s licence from October 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014, motorists heaved a sigh of relief, but the respite was not to last long as the police immediately announced it would commence its own biometrics central motor registry requirement (Police BCMR) by the force public relations officer, Mr Frank Mba.

Against this backdrop, the police will today flag off the biometric registration of automobiles, during which all vehicles, motorcycles and tricycles are expected to be registered.

Apart from checkmating crime, the new scheme, code-named ‘Police Biometric Central Motor Registry, Police BCMR,’ according to the Force Information Technology Officer, Mr. Ayotunde Omodehinde, would also end the era of policemen standing on the road, demanding vehicles particulars.

The event which took place at the Force Headquarters main car park was attended by stakeholders in the sector, among which was the Minister of Police Affairs, Caleb Olubolade.

Issues of insecurity have been on the front burner of national discourse leaving government to decide how to ensure that lives and property are protected.

Addressing a news conference in Abuja, spokesman for the police, Mr Frank Mba said the biometric central motor registration will assist in reducing crime in the country.

The wind of change is blowing at the nation’s seaports. It is the introduction of biometric cards for customs agents who clear goods at the ports. The new policy, among others, is in line with the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

But it goes beyond this. Championed by the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), the policy is also expected to check the age-long tradition of fraudulent practices involving some customs agents.

The Senate resolved that the BCMR was a duplication of the ongoing vehicle owners’ biometric data scheme, introduced by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).

The Senate resolved that the BCMR was a duplication of the on-going vehicle owners’ biometric data scheme, introduced by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).

The lawmakers directed the police to merge their biometric data collection with the already existing data base of the FRSC which had been in operation before the Police introduced the BCMR.

Almost at the same time, Nigerian motorists are hounded from all corners by the police, the Federal Road Safety Corps, state road agencies, vehicle inspection officers, customs, emission control agencies, signage enforcement outfits, among others. According to the police, the ‘great invention’ was made as a response to the contemporary security challenges bordering on terrorism, high incidence of kidnapping, car theft, carjacking and other acts of crimes and criminality.

Before the police's Biometric Central Motor Registration, BCMR, organisations that had captured biometrics of Nigerians included:

• National Civic Registration Commission, national identity card in 2002
• Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, voter's card since 2007
• Nigerian Immigration Service with the e-passport from 2007
• National Population Commission, 2006 census
• Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, the new driver's licence
• National Communication Commission and telecommunications companies in 2010
• Banks have biometrics of their customers from 2010.
• Some States have begun biometric registration of residents

Prof. Oladapo Afolabi said the number of pensioners dropped from 97,000 to 60,000, meaning that there had been ghost pensioners and fraud.

He said that more than US$935 million was paid every month as pensions to retired federal civil servants.