Staff of the National Identity Management Communication (NIMC) have vowed to continue with the ongoing strike till the federal government yielded to all their demands.
Our correspondents report that the strike action was fully enforced in states like Bayelsa and Nasarawa while some staff were seen working at the Kano’s office of the NIMC.
The strike action, according to the aggrieved staff, was embarked on to demand for safety plan for NIMC staff against COVID-19 and also to demand for a new salary structure.
Leading the protest in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Mr. Paul Soroh, said that while they work under pressure to enable Nigerians get their NIN for onward connection to their SIM cards, the Federal Government failed to provide necessary tools for them to function effectively.
He said: “As you know workers on level 12 downwards are not supposed to be at work but we came out to do this work voluntarily but because of the attitude of government, we are withdrawing our voluntary services until something is done about it.”
Office locked in Lafia
The Lafia branch office of NIMC in Nasarawa State was under lock and key when our correspondent visited.
It was observed that the staff in the state joined the strike action in compliance with the directive of their industrial union for them to down tools until their demands are met.
No official was available for comment on the development.
Skeletal services in Kano
Daily Trust discovered that the strike halted the process of registration at NIMC headquarter in Kano even though some centres in the metropolitan were operating skeletal services.
At the Unguwa uku center, our correspondent saw some NIMC staff hanging around ready to register the applicants who come for the registration even though there was not much people at the center.
Our correspondent spoke to some applicants who said that they paid some unspecified amount of money to get enrolled.
“I came for registration and I was enrolled after paying some amount of money,” one of the applicants said.
At Masallachin Murtala, our correspondent met some of NIMC staff in the office asking applicants to come back tomorrow as their computer was faulty.
One of the staff was asking our correspondent if she came for the registration to give him her name and phone number as he will help her through tomorrow.
“Our computer is faulty now and it has been taken for fixing you can come back tomorrow.
“You can give me your name and phone number so that I will book for you when you come back tomorrow you will be the first to attend to,” the staff said.
When our correspondent asked some NIMC staff about the ongoing strike, they said they were not aware of any strike. adding that they were not operating due to their computer issue.
Daily Trust reports that the Federal Government’s directive to telecom operators to link their subscribers with National Identity Numbers (NINs) may suffer a setback because of the warning strike.
Many Nigerians have been complaining about the amount of time it takes to attend to people who spend hours on the queue to register.
