Lawmakers to make formal identification obligatory for renting residences in Abuja

The Senate has resolved to provoke laws that might require potential tenants within the Federal Capital Territory to offer legitimate identification earlier than renting residences, as a part of efforts to curb prison actions.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio directed Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele to draft a invoice for consideration by the National Assembly throughout Tuesday’s plenary. Akpabio made the request whereas lawmakers debated a report on the necessity to shield Nigerians from being trafficked to Libya for slavery.

The report was ready by the Senate committees on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations; Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters; Foreign Affairs; and Special Duties. It was introduced by Aniekan Bassey, chairman of the Senate Committee on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations.

Akpabio expressed concern that some property house owners hire their premises to strangers with out acquiring enough details about their identities, occupations or backgrounds. He argued that insufficient documentation makes it troublesome for safety businesses to hint suspects when crimes happen, permitting individuals to depart rented properties with no dependable file of who they’re.

“A lot of people just give their properties to strangers. They don’t even have any papers to know where they come from. In some instances, the phone number that is used in renting the property does not even belong to the occupant of the house. So when something happens, the person will escape and then leave no trace,” he mentioned. The Senate President urged Bamidele to contemplate laws that might strengthen tenancy rules and require landlords to confirm the identities of potential tenants.

He mentioned some individuals hire properties with prison intentions and steered that stronger tenancy legal guidelines might assist authorities hint these concerned in offences comparable to trafficking. “People enter people’s properties with very nefarious intentions and, at the end of the day, they will just commit some crimes, traffic people’s children and make money while living in the house itself. It is something that we must tighten the laws on tenancy,” he mentioned.

Akpabio in contrast the proposal to the banking sector’s Know Your Customer coverage, below which monetary establishments confirm clients’ identities. “As you know in the bank, they say, know your customer; this one we can say, know your tenants. Let’s make the necessary law for the FCT, for instance,” he mentioned.

He steered {that a} regulation for the FCT might assist stop individuals from utilizing rented houses to perpetrate crimes. The Senate President additionally proposed extending the measure to outlets and different industrial premises. He mentioned individuals renting such areas ought to be capable to present verifiable identification, together with a driver’s licence, worldwide passport or one other recognised technique of identification.

According to him, dependable information would help safety businesses when investigating crimes linked to rented premises. He famous that, with out such particulars, a property proprietor may be unable to establish or assist find a tenant who had left after an offence. To assist his proposal, Akpabio recalled measures launched throughout his time as governor of Akwa Ibom State to deal with kidnapping.

He mentioned his administration prescribed the demise penalty for kidnapping and launched measures involving the destruction of properties used as hideouts by criminals. According to him, these measures inspired landlords to observe actions on their premises and report suspicious behaviour as a result of they feared shedding their properties.

He steered that measures affecting tenancy might equally discourage criminals from utilizing rented residences and industrial areas as bases for his or her actions. If enacted as proposed, the laws might place extra duties on landlords and property brokers within the FCT to confirm potential tenants and preserve related information.

Its impact would depend upon the main points of the invoice, together with the identification paperwork accepted, how information can be saved, how compliance can be monitored and when info may very well be shared with authorised businesses. The proposal might additionally increase questions on tenants’ privateness, the safety of private info and the chance that folks with out available identification may very well be denied lodging.

The Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 supplies a framework for the lawful and safe dealing with of private info. A system requiring landlords to gather and retain tenants’ identification particulars would wish to adjust to relevant knowledge safety obligations. The proposed laws stays on the drafting stage and would wish to move by way of the National Assembly’s legislative course of earlier than it might develop into regulation.