Abuja—The Director General of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Mrs. Abisoye Coker-Odusote, has said the commission is working with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and security agencies to track down kidnappers and their victims.
She said the initiative would be executed through the National Identity Numbers (NIN) and Subscribers Identity Modules (SIM) databases.
Mrs. Odusote, who did not give details of the collaboration, said some gaps had been identified as stakeholders were working to close them while addressing the security challenges confronting the country.
The NIMC boss, who was represented by her technical assistant, Mrs. Ayobami Abiola, told reporters on Thursday in Abuja after opening a stakeholders’ engagement on Nigeria Identification for Development Project (ID4D) that the loopholes that had been identified were being plugged.
Also, the Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of the NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, has promised to put a regulation in place to punish phone criminals.
Maida stated this during his maiden meeting with reporters.
To address major issues affecting the telecoms sector, the NCC boss said he had scheduled a meeting today with CEOs of all mobile network operators (MNOs) in the country.
Maida said security would be an area of focus, adding that the integrity of the network is important because of the volume of transactions that take place on it.
Also, the High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, has sentenced three convicts to death by hanging for kidnapping and murder. The fourth suspect was discharged and acquitted.
They were tired for kidnapping and murder of Chief Abbot Ogbobula in June 2017.
The three convicts are: Boma Thompson, Emelike Mathias, and Daniel Thankgod.
They were found guilty on four counts of conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping, conspiracy to murder, and murder.
On conspiracy to kidnap, Justice Monina Danagogo convicted and sentenced the first, second and fourth defendants to seven years imprisonment with no option of fine.
On kidnapping, the judge convicted and sentenced the first, second and fourth defendants to death by hanging.
On conspiracy to murder, the judge sentenced the first, second and fourth defendants to 14 years imprisonment with no option of fine, while they got death by hanging or lethal injection for murder.
The late Chief Ogbobula was kidnapped in Ahoada and taken to Manikin Bush in Degema Local Government Area where he later died.
Also, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command has faulted a report that policemen in Kaduna State rescued a man abducted in Abuja and arrested one of the kidnappers.
The Kaduna State Police command had reported that it rescued Segun Akinyemi who was kidnapped while driving out of his house.
A statement by the Kaduna Police Command spokesperson Mansir Hassan said the kidnappers were taking Akinyemi to Kano State when the police swooped on them.
But FCT police command spokesperson Josephine Adeh said the report was not true.
Reacting to the development, she said: “Not true, please, disregard.”
