The activist and editor of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore, has threatened to sue the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) for the alleged illegal and unconstitutional deactivation of his National Identity Number (NIN).
Mr. Sowore, a former presidential candidate, issued the threat in a pre-action notice sent by his attorney, Tope Temokun, to NIMC’s Director General/CEO.
The attorney, in the pre-action notice, demanded the reactivation of Mr. Sowore’s NIN within seven days, otherwise he threatened to sue the agency for redress.
“PLEASE NOTE that if after the expiration of SEVEN DAYS, including the date of delivery of this letter, our client’s National Identity Number (NIN) is not reactivated, we have our client’s full instruction to approach the appropriate court with jurisdiction to seek this relief and this will be without further recourse to you,” the Jan. 14, 2022, letter read in part.
As the seven-day ultimatum issued in the letter expired on Friday without his demand being met, Mr. Temokun told our reporter on Saturday that his client would sue the agency “next week.”
They copied the pre-action notice sent to NIMC: the National Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), the National Security Adviser, the Security Service of State (SSS) and the Chief of Defense Staff.
‘How the deactivation of NIN was discovered’
Mr. Temokun recalled that Mr. Sowore had been using his NIN for various transactions since it was issued to him for purposes including applying for and issuing a passport, opening a bank account, registering with the INEC and issuing of the voter card.
He said his client surprisingly found out about his NIN being deactivated on January 12 when he wanted to use it for a transaction.
“On January 12, 2022, when he wanted to use his National Identity Number to carry out a certain banking transaction, he discovered with great dismay that his National Identity Number had been deactivated from the National Identity Database.
“No notice was sent to him nor did he receive any message from the National Identity Management Commission regarding the deactivation of his National Identity Number.”
He added: “The deactivation of his National Identity Number is politically motivated to prevent him from participating in the elections of the 2023 generation.”
Mr. Sowore had told our reporter in a previous interview that the deactivation of the NIN affected his permanent voter card, passport and driver’s license.
He also said that an official from the Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB) had told him on January 10 that “the DSS (SSS) has delivered a newly renewed freezing order to the bank.”
He recalled that his passport had been seized by the Federal High Court in Abuja as a condition of bail granted to him at his ongoing trial on felony charges of treason.
He pointed out that although he did not have a driver’s license, it would be impossible to obtain one without an active NIN should he need one.
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Sahara Reporters had previously reported, on January 12, 2022, that Mr. Sowore’s biometric IDs had been deactivated and that he would not be able to use any of the national documents to conduct transactions inside or outside the country.
The report described the development as the Nigerian government’s latest attack on Mr. Sowore.
“Legal action will definitely be taken as this infringes on the broader right of citizenship,” Mr. Sowore had told our reporter.
NIMC spokesman Kayode Adegoke could not be reached for comment as he did not respond to repeated calls from our reporter or respond to text messages we sent him.
But the spokesman for the National Immigration Service (NIS), the government agency that issues passports to Nigerian citizens, Amos Okpu, said he had no information about the alleged deactivation of Sowore’s passport.
SSS agents, in the form of a gestapo, arrested Mr. Sowore in Lagos in August 2019 after he called a nationwide #RevolutionNow protest against misgovernance, corruption and worsening insecurity in the country under the supervision of the President Muhammadu Buhari.
The federal government later charged him with felony treason, charging him with trying to overthrow Mr. Buhari. He was charged along with a protester, Olavale Bakare, who was arrested by the SSS in Osun state.
The court later granted both men bail. As part of the bail conditions, the court restricted Mr. Sowore to Abuja. It also restricted Mr. Bakare to Osogbo and he can only leave the Osun state capital when he travels to Abuja for his trial.
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But since then, Sowore has been participating in many protests in Abuja. He has been detained temporarily and on one occasion for days during some of the protests.
Mr. Sowore has, on numerous occasions, raised the alarm about repeated coordinated attacks on him by suspected hired thugs during protests and court appearances.