• Arrests Woman, Three Others In Enugu, Awka
• Impounds Data Capturing Machines
SHORTLY after arresting a young woman, Tope Sani, 28, in Enugu and three other men in Awka for allegedly selling pre-registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) cards to end users without capturing their true bio-data as prescribed by law, the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) Saturday said it is investigating the level of collusion with relevant service providers.
A combined team of security operatives and field officers of the NCC, led by its South East Zonal Head of Enforcement, Mr. Efosa Idehen, arrested the offenders and impounded two data-capturing machines in the process.
Before the Awka operation, Idehen had stated, in Enugu, that one other culprit, on getting wind of the operation, escaped to Anambra State, saying that officials of the Commission and security agents were already on his trail.
Hinting that the NCC "is beaming its searchlight on all network providers to find out the level of possible collusion with illegal SIM card sellers for necessary prosecution and sanctions," Idehen said the Commission had given a directive that "all subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card numbers in Nigeria must be registered before it becomes fully active
"You are not supposed to receive call or dial out until those SIM cards have been fully registered so that the biometrics of whoever is having that SIM cards is captured in our data base.
"But somehow some of our people are smatter, they have decided to device a way of fraudulently registering SIM cards for sales. That means you can go to the streets and still buy fully activated SIM cards and this has implications; that is people who want to do run can go buy those SIM cards and use them and its also messing up our data base because the true picture of subscribers are not captured in our data base.
Addressing journalists after raiding the offices of the suspects in Awka, Idehen disclosed that his surveillance/monitoring operatives had been on their trail for some time now. He said officers of the commission had acted under cover as potential buyers of the pre-registered SIM cards and actually bought some before apprehending the suspects.
The suspects, according to him were using licensed coded machines assigned to two popular GSM network service providers — MTN and Etisalat — that were formally assigned to them for genuine SIM registration, for the nefarious deals.
Idehen stated that the Commission would continue to raid the registration centres round the country until they comply fully with the laws guiding the SIM registration and its operations.
He admonished service providers to add quality assurance to their services instead of mass registration of SIMs that might not be ready for use in a long time.
Stressing that the essence the registration was to protect society from the criminal acts of a few bad eggs, Idehen lamented that some service providers had, in effort to boost their public image, been trying outdo one another through SIM card registration.
The Guardian