Serious NIN Crime Going On In Nigeria

So, two days ago I lost my phone on my way back from work. So I decided to buy/register a new sim card yesterday.
So I branched to Ajah (along Ado road) to buy and register a new sim pending when I will have time probably by weekend to retrieve my old number.

While the registration was ongoing, I noticed the agent/vendor was selling already registered sims to customers without NIN, I became curious to know how possible it is considering all the protocols involve in registering new sims.

So I asked him how much he sells the already registered sims and he told me 5k and I was still wondering how possible it can be.

So to confirm whether or not it’s true I paid for a sim (5k) and he started with the “processing”.

First of all, there is this guy that came in to complain that his number was blocked even though he has NIN and had link it with his sim.

The vendor through the help of the device they run their business with confirmed that there is a variation in the name used in registering the sim and the one in the NIN so he was told to wait (till he is done doing my work).

So after I paid for the already registered sim, I was surprised that the agent now called the man and started taking his passport.

I picked offense by this attitude and confronted him(the agent) for abandoning me for another customer even though I came before him.

At this point, he cornered me and told me to chill and that he was still on my work but only wanted to use the guy’s NIN to link the already registered sim I paid for.

I was mad. So this is the extent people can go in a bid to make money?

Imagine if I actually needed that sim and maybe I use it to perpetuate some crimes(God forbid) who do you think will be held responsible for it?

I decided to bring this here to at least advise/warn us to be very careful and cautious of who has access to our NIN especially during this period that most sims are barred.