It has come to light that criminals are selling Nigerians’ sensitive data on government-issued documents, such as passport numbers, bank verification numbers, tax identification numbers, and driver’s licences, for as little as N100 online.

The Paradigm Initiative (PIN) filed a lawsuit against Anyverify, a website that claims to verify the Permanent Voter Card (PVC), National Identification Number, BVN, or TIN, of Nigerians to anyone willing to pay N100. The website, opened November 2023, lacks authorisation to verify and share citizens’ details.

Each request for verification costs N100, and the website has enjoyed huge visibility as it was visited  567,990 times in February and 188,360 times in April.

It is unclear how Anyverify, unaffiliated with any government ministry, got access to the classified data of hundreds of millions of Nigerians to the point of monetising it.

PIN deemed the information sale an affront and a breach of the privacy of Nigerians who trusted the government institutions enough to keep their sensitive details safe.

The initiative was concerned that Nigerians’ information getting hawked on an unauthorised platform could aid kidnappers and internet fraudsters to commit crimes that could threaten national security.

The PIN is seeking an order directing a thorough investigation and publication of findings into Anyverify’s activities and an order for all affected government agencies to compensate persons whose data was leaked.

The initiative also sought a court order mandating all government institutions to adopt technical measures to secure citizens’ sensitive data.

PIN has sent pre-action notice to concerned government agencies, including the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), and the office of the Attorney General of the Federation.