The Rivers State Police Command has taken into custody three individuals suspected of engaging in National Identity Number (NIN) racketeering in Port Harcourt.
The arrest unfolded when a team of police officers apprehended the suspects at the entrance of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) along Aba Road in the state capital during Wednesday afternoon.
The police operatives, numbering about four, arrived at the scene in a private blue sedan, disembarked from their vehicle, and swiftly apprehended individuals claiming to be NIN agents operating along the roadside.
This crackdown came in response to complaints regarding the activities of these suspects, who had posed as agents of the federal agency while concealing their ulterior motives from the public.
Some of the individuals claiming to be roadside agents, visible at the entrance of the commission on Thursday, explained that they were selling NIN registration forms due to a lack of employment opportunities.
Reports indicate that those arrested were pleading with the police to allow them to continue their operations.
Meanwhile, an anonymous source within the Port Harcourt NIMC office disclosed that these individuals regularly visited the office, presenting themselves as agents. At times, they duped unsuspecting members of the public who visited the facility.
The source stated, “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 a 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,” the source continued.
The NIMC office has reportedly tried to disperse these individuals from lingering around its premises but with little success. There have been prior instances when the police arrested some of them, only for them to return after a few days.
Efforts to reach the spokesperson of the state police command, Grace Iringe-Koko, were unsuccessful as her mobile phone was not reachable. Additionally, she had not responded to a text message sent to her as of the time of compiling this report on Thursday afternoon.