Police arrest NIN registration extortioners in Rivers

Three people were detained in Port Harcourt by men from the Rivers State Police Command on suspicion of participating in a National Identity Number extortion.

A group of police officers apprehended the suspects on Wednesday afternoon at the entrance to the National Identity Management Commission on Aba Road in the state capital.

Four or five of the operators swooped on the roadside acclaimed agents after highlighting from their blue private salon car and arriving in the vicinity.

The operation was conducted in response to complaints over the suspects' actions while posing as federal agency officers, although it was later discovered that they were acting with ulterior reasons.

Some of the roadside renowned salespeople who were spotted Thursday at the commission's gate assert that they sell NIN registration forms because they are jobless.

It was learned that individuals who had been detained were pleading with the authorities to let them continue to work.

According to a source at the Port Harcourt NIMC office who spoke on the record on the condition of anonymity, the men frequently visit the office dressed as agents and occasionally persuade unwary members of the public who are in the area to visit the facility.

He stated, “You know this is a federal government office and people come here to either obtain a NIN or verify theirs and other things.

“You see this group of young men that hang around here constituting nuisance and claiming to be agents when nobody sent them to do what they are doing.

“They corner the people who come to our office and promise to assist them with whatever they want. Sometimes they even tell them that they are the genuine staff of NIMC and collect money from them.”

Continuing, he said, “We have chased them and asked them not to hang around our gate, but they always come back. There was a time when the police came and arrested some of them. After some days they were back.”

Grace Iringe-Koko, the state police command's spokesman, could not be reached because her cell phone was not active.

Additionally, as of the time this report was submitted on Thursday afternoon, she had not responded to a text message given to her.

Source