POLICE SMASH IDENTITY FRAUD SYNDICATE OPERATING ILLEGAL NIN VERIFICATION PLATFORMS
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By Aishat Momoh. O.
The Nigeria Police Force has arrested eight members of a syndicate operating multiple unauthorised identity verification platforms that harvested and sold Nigerians’ personal data under the guise of accessing the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) database.
The arrests followed a petition by the NIMC Director-General, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, who raised alarm over the unlawful distribution and commercialisation of citizens’ personally identifiable information.
Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Victor Isuku, disclosed at a joint press briefing in Abuja on Thursday that the Police National Cybercrime Centre (NPF-NCCC) deployed advanced digital forensic techniques to track down the suspects and dismantle their illicit domains.
“The actors behind this heinous act were Hamzat Lukman and Babalola Tolani Suleiman, arrested in Kwara and Lagos States. Lukman, a software developer, created and hosted the domain goverify.com.ng on behalf of Suleiman and also managed three other domains for the same purpose,” Isuku revealed.
Further investigations led to the arrest of other collaborators, including Nura Bello and Ibrahim Abubakar, linked to idfinders.com.ng. Additional suspects named are Shoara Kehinde, Abubakar Amisu, Abdullahi Salisu, and Ashiru Sanni.
The police also identified several fraudulent domains used for the cybercrimes, including verifymyNIN.com, triplus.ng, idfinder.com.ng, verifyforme.com.ng, subpoint.com.ng, verify.datashop.com.ng, championtech.com.ng, anyverify.com.ng, cremetech.com.ng, nickverify.humanity.com.ng, and inventor.com.ng.
Isuku stressed that the Inspector-General of Police has reaffirmed commitment to protecting Nigeria’s critical digital assets, safeguarding citizens’ data, and dismantling criminal syndicates targeting government databases.
Director of the NPF-NCCC, CP Ifenayi Uche, clarified that contrary to fears, the NIMC database itself was never compromised.
“Our investigations confirmed there were no breaches in the NIMC system. What we uncovered were phishing links mimicking NIMC’s website to illegally harvest personal data, which the suspects stored in parallel databases and sold to unsuspecting clients,” Uche explained.
He added that 13 out of 14 fraudulent domains identified during the operation have already been taken down, with prosecution of the arrested suspects set to commence shortly.
Speaking at the briefing, NIMC DG Coker-Odusote assured Nigerians of reinforced safeguards around the national identity database.
“The NIMC remains steadfast in protecting citizens’ data. We have upgraded our systems to accommodate 250 million registrations, decentralised enrolment to ward levels, and strengthened our cybersecurity architecture,” she said.
She urged citizens to avoid patronising unauthorised agents or business centres, stressing that enrolment is free at all approved NIMC centres and should only be done through official channels.
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