By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered that Nigerians submit their International Mobile Equipment Identity ( IMEI), a unique number on every telephone which aids tracking and spying.
The IMEI allows for the tracking of telephone users and listening to their conversation. Why Buhari would want citizens to surrender the code that could compromise their privacy and security is still unclear.
According to Buhari, in a memo to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami whom many Nigerians accuse of having sympathy for terror groups like Al-Qaeda and Taliban, the directive must be fully implemented by the end of July 2021.
A campaigner against police brutality, Segun Awosanya, popularly known by his Twitter handle name @segalink, said the directive would be disregarded.
He said: “This madness ends here. It is actually lawful to disregard an unconscionable order that breaches the constitutionally protected rights and privacy of the citizenry. The alleged demand for citizens’ IMEI is an overreach that must be resisted by all and sundry. #EndImpunity.”
@ronaldnzimora said: “NIN + IMEI registration is a way for the Govt to track down and kill you when you disagree with them. Stop registering for it. Even if you did NIN, don’t ever do IMEI registration.”
@UNCLE_AJALA tweeted: “Isa Pantami has access to our NIN, now NCC is mandating Nigerians to submit IMEI of phones from July 2021. I hope FG won’t be mad if people don’t comply with the IMEI directive, because when people asked for the resignation of Isa Pantami for his extremism, FG didn’t comply.”
A poll by Punch Newspaper shows 90.2 per cent of the respondents out of the 12, 224 people who voted say they won’t comply with the directive. 9.2per cent said they would.
