A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos Southwest Nigeria, has ordered the extension of the deadline for National Identity Number, NIN by two months effective from Tuesday, March 23, 2021.
The Nigerian Communications Commission NCC, had in December last year, ordered the disconnection of subscribers who failed to link their lines to their NIN, giving just about a two-week ultimatum.
On Tuesday December 15, 2020 the Nigerian telecommunications commission NCC ordered mobile-phone users to link their devices to their national identity numbers or risk having their lines being blocked by Dec 31 of same year
With an ultimatum of barely two weeks, subscribers panicked to registration centers across the country in their hundreds, disregarding COVID-19 protocols.
Images and videos of Covid-19 caution thrown to the wind went viral on social media forcing the suspension of the registration process and the closure of some registration centers across the country
This prompted Barrister Monday Ubani, former vice-president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), to file a law suit against the Federal Government, Attorney-General of the Federation, Nigerian Communications Commission, and Minister of Communication and Digital Economy over the initial deadline of December 30 2020 set for the NIN-SIM registration.
