BY BANYO TEMITAYO
THE Federal Government, on Monday, hinted that the ongoing National Identification Number enrolment exercise might be suspended as a proactive step to check the spread of COVID-19, in view of rising cases.
The Minister of State for Health, Olorunnimbe Mamora, who gave the hint, said the Federal Government had a duty to ensure that citizens were protected in the face of the second wave of the pandemic.
Mamora spoke on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.
The Federal Government had given telecommunications operators a deadline to link the NIN of subscribers to their SIMs or block the lines, THE POINT had reported.
This has resulted in the rush for the NIN at designated centres across the country since December, even with the extension of the initial two weeks deadline.
The health minister said the Federal Government did not envisage that the process would be that rowdy, noting that the relevant Ministry, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, was on top of the matter.
He said, “I don’t feel good looking at the picture where people are gathered in multitude. It is like a super-spreader event which we don’t like. But I’m also aware that the relevant ministry which is the Communications and Digital Economy Ministry, is looking at this.
“My understanding is that the whole process may be suspended so as to reorder it in terms of management of the crowd because it was never intended that it would become a rowdy process like that.”
“We have a duty as government to ensure that people are protected. We also have a duty to ensure people comply within the limit of what is good for the society at large,” Mamora added.
A total of 100,087 COVID-19 cases were confirmed by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control on Sunday. A total of 1358 deaths have also been reported, while 80,030 persons have been treated and discharged.
