The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has said its warehouse in Calabar, Cross River State, was recently burgled and some items, including 4,555 old National Identity Cards carted away by the burglars.
In a statement signed by NIMC’s spokesman, Mr. Loveday Chika Ogbonna, and issued in Abuja, the Commission explained that the store, in which some materials and items it inherited from the defunct Department of National Civic Registration (DNCR) were kept, was broken into and items, including about 4,555 pieces of the old National ID Cards leftover after distribution years ago were stolen.
The DNCR and all its assets and liabilities were taken over by NIMC in 2007.
“However, the 4,555 stolen old ID cards have been recovered, and four suspected thieves who were found in possession of the cards, were arrested by the Police in Cross River state at Eyo-Edem Street, Calabar.
“The suspects have also been charged to court by the police in line with the theft,” Mr. Ogbonna further explained in the statement.
The NIMC spokesman assured the public that the recovered cards were not part of the new National e-ID Card currently being issued by the commission.
“The new National e-ID Card, which was launched in late 2014, is of higher technology, making it extremely difficult to be faked or used by anyone who is not the registered owner,” he stated.