A month after the Head of State, President Paul Biya announced the issuing of National Identity Cards for free in his 2013 New Year message to the nation, thousands of people have been queuing up in Identification Offices

nationwide to obtain the document, which is required for the ongoing recompilation of the electoral registers.

Special measures have been taken in the centres to enable as many Cameroonians as possible benefit from the measure. People who want the National Identity Card for the first time must furnish the certified true copy of the birth certificate, certificate of nationality, while those whose cards are missing must present a certificate of loss at the Identification Office.

As people flock into the centres to obtain the cards, hundreds of thousands of cards already established await withdrawal by their owners. The withdrawal process does not witness any hustle and bustle. Cameroon Tribune sets out to find out the progress in issuing National Identity Cards free of charge and the situation of abandoned cards.

The critical period in the country's democracy progress with registration into the electoral registers expected to end on February 28, requires that people rush to have National Identity Cards and withdraw abandoned ones.