The Paradigm Initiative (PIN) has sued NIMC, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) over the breach of the National Identity Numbers (NINs) by hackers.

The suit, whose hearing has been fixed for January 22, 2025, at an Abuja High Court, will also involve the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC), and the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.

PIN Executive Director, Gbenga Sesan, who disclosed this at a media parley in Lagos on Wednesday, revealed that data of 43 million Nigerians might have been compromised by cybercriminals sometime in April this year due to the negligence of NIMC.

He stressed that PIN had sued several other federal government agencies along with NIMC because they are also data-collecting agencies, and some of them used data collected by NIMC.

“Loan firms are now embarrassing many Nigerians because criminals have used their compromised personal data to get loans without their knowledge. They are now being harassed up and down by some of these loan firms,” the executive director said.

He stated that the group wants the court to legally force the government agencies to do the right thing by safeguarding the data kept in their custody and to take responsibility when it is breached. He then called on the federal government to prevail on some of its agencies to do the right thing in order to prevent the data of Nigerians from being hacked.

Sesan bemoaned policy backslides by many Nigerian government agencies, adding that this is one of the reasons why some of them have had security violated by outsiders.

The PIN’s executive director also said it was becoming clearer that the NIN exercise might have lost its relevance, as it didn’t stop or reduce kidnapping and other insecurities in the country.

In its response, the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has described rumours circulating that its database has been breached by hackers as baseless, assuring that the National Identification Number (NIN) data of Nigerians are intact and not compromised.