Police in Cross River State have recovered 4,555 old national identity cards and arrested four people found with the cards. They have already been charged to court in Calabar, a statement from the National Identity Management Commission said in Abuja yesterday.
The commission said its store was recently burgled in Calabar and some items including the 4,555 cards were stolen.
The store, which NIMC inherited from the defunct Department of National Civic Registration (DNCR), had the leftover of the old ID cards after distribution years ago. It noted that the DNCR and all its assets and liabilities were taken over by NIMC in 2007.
The spokesman of the commission, Mr. Loveday Chika Ogbonna, in the statement assured that the recovered cards were not part of the new national e-ID cards currently being issued by the commission, adding, “The new national e-ID card which was launched late 2014 is of higher technology, making it extremely difficult to be faked or used by anyone who is not the registered owner”.