As Nigerians jostle to acquire the National Identity Number from the National Identity Management Commission offices across the country, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has warned against the sale and purchase of the NIN.

The commission said some unscrupulous persons were cashing in on the enrollees’ desperation to induce them to sell their NIN for a fee.

The EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwujaren, in a statement on Thursday, noted that the buyers of the numbers were also trading with persons “whose motives are anything but noble.”

He said, “The EFCC wishes to alert Nigerians that it is not only illegal to sell their NIN, they stand the risk of vicarious liability for any act of criminality linked to their NIN.

“In other words, they risk arrest and prosecution for any act of criminality linked to their NIN whether or not they are directly responsible for such crimes.”

The commission warned members of the public against selling their NIN and admonished them to report anyone seeking to buy the facility to the nearest office of the EFCC or other law enforcement agencies.

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UGAMATV had earlier reported that the Federal Government through the Nigerian Communication Commission ordered telecommunications companies to deactivate telephone lines of subscribers who failed to link their phones to their National Identity Number.

The Federal Government said telcos subscribers with NIN have January 19 as deadline to link their NIN with their SIM cards while subscribers without NIN have until February 9 to do so.