Lawmakers move to make formal identification compulsory for renting apartments in Abuja

The Senate on Tuesday resolved to provoke laws requiring tenants in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, to current legitimate technique of identification earlier than renting apartments as a part of efforts to curb prison actions.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, directed the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, to draft the invoice for consideration by the National Assembly.

Mr Akpabio gave the directive through the plenary whereas lawmakers have been debating a report by the Senate committees on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations; Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters; Foreign Affairs; and Special Duties on the necessity to shield Nigerians from being trafficked to Libya for slavery.

The report was introduced by Aniekan Bassey, chair of the Senate Committee on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations.

Mr Akpabio expressed concern that many property house owners hire out their properties to strangers with out acquiring satisfactory details about their identities, occupations and different related particulars.

He argued that the shortage of correct documentation makes it tough for safety businesses to hint suspects when crimes are dedicated, permitting perpetrators to escape with out leaving a transparent path.

“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 Mr Bamidele to contemplate laws that will strengthen tenancy laws and make landlords extra accountable for verifying potential tenants’ identities.

“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.

Mr Akpabio proposed adopting an method comparable to the banking sector’s Know Your Customer (KYC) coverage, which requires monetary establishments to 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. We can enact an Act for the FCT that says know your tenants so that nobody will come and live in the house and perpetrate crime,” he mentioned.

He mentioned the proposed laws might additionally cowl the rental of retailers and different industrial areas, arguing that insufficient identification verification might expose occupants and enterprise house owners to prison assaults.

Mr Akpabio mentioned individuals renting retailers ought to present verifiable identification, together with a driver’s licence or worldwide passport, to assist safety businesses hint them if they’re implicated in prison actions.

He mentioned the shortage of dependable tenant info might go away property house owners unable to establish or assist find individuals who used their premises to commit crimes.

“And then even these which are going to do shoplets, we will use that chance to regulate shoplets as a result of individuals go into secluded environments after which do shoplets, after which they move in they usually rob them in the evening and escape.

“So people who want to do shoplifting should have clear identities; you should be able to show either a driver’s licence or an international passport and other means of identification so that if you stay in somebody’s property and then you go and commit a crime, when they trace and come there and find out that this was where you live, the owner of the property may not even have an idea of who you were.”

Akpabio’s expertise as governor

To assist his argument, Mr Akpabio recalled measures his administration launched to deal with kidnapping when he was governor of Akwa Ibom State.

He mentioned his authorities prescribed the demise penalty for kidnapping and launched measures involving the destruction of property used as hideouts by criminals.

The Senate President famous that the measures inspired landlords to monitor actions on their premises and report suspicious behaviour for worry of dropping them.

He mentioned comparable measures might assist deter criminals from utilizing rented apartments and industrial premises as bases for prison actions.

How the proposed regulation might have an effect on Abuja’s rental market

If enacted as envisaged by the Senate President, the proposed laws would require landlords in the FCT to confirm potential tenants’ identities earlier than letting out their property.

The proposal is meant to assist safety businesses hint individuals suspected of committing crimes from their residential addresses and discourage criminals from utilizing rented apartments and industrial premises as hideouts.

However, its effectiveness would rely on the laws’s particulars, together with how identities can be verified, what information landlords can be required to maintain, and the way compliance can be monitored.

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If enacted, the regulation might make it simpler for investigators to set up the identities of tenants linked to rented property. It might additionally impose further tasks on landlords and property brokers, probably requiring them to retain identification information and supply related info to authorised authorities when legally required.

The proposal might, nevertheless, increase considerations about privateness, the safety of tenants’ private info and the potential for landlords utilizing the requirement to discriminate towards potential tenants or deny lodging to individuals who can’t readily present the prescribed paperwork.

The Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 gives a framework for lawful, safe dealing with of non-public info. Any system requiring landlords to acquire and retain tenants’ identification particulars would wish to adjust to relevant knowledge safety obligations.

The proposal stays in the drafting stage, based mostly on the proceedings described by the Senate President. It would wish to undergo the legislative course of earlier than turning into regulation.