The Nigerian Communications Commission said it has made some arrest of suspects who engaged in the fraudulent sale of pre-registered new SIM cards to subscribers. The arrests were carried out by the Commission’s Monitoring and Compliance Department of the Nigerian Communications Commission, in collaboration with the security agencies.
The Commission, in a statement signed by its Head, Media and Public Relations, Mr. Reuben Muoka, said the suspects were arrested from two locations after they sold such cards to undercover agents - in the areas surrounding the offices of one of the operators, in Maitama district, and the GSM Village in Area 1, Abuja. It would be recalled that in the course of the on-going SIM card registration exercise, the Commission had alerted the members of the public on the activities of some unscrupulous elements who have engaged in the illegal sale of pre-registered SIM cards.
The Commission went further to mount a special publicity campaign to advice those engaged in this act about its negative consequences. According to Mouka, under the regulation guiding the registration of SIM cards in the country and its use thereof, all new SIM cards purchased from February 14, 2011, can only receive calls and text messages, but cannot originate calls or receive text messages until they are registered with the appropriate operator which issued the new SIM cards.
He stated that, in the regulation, subscribers were obliged to personally register such SIM cards before they are activated as no proxy registration is allowed for new SIM cards. “The law forbids the sell or purchase of pre-registered SIM cards and prescribes imprisonment, or fine or both for offenders of these provisions.
In these provisions, with sanctions prescribed by the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, service providers who allow their third party agents or dealers to engage in this act will be liable, just like those who sell, or purchase such SIM cards,” he said. Mouka said while such act negates the main objectives of SIM card registration in the country, it was capable of introducing a dimension where people who have not registered their lines will still have access to phones at the detriment security other people.
“All subscribers are expected to register their phones and are not expected to buy phones registered with biometric identification data of people they do not know as this is capable of creating a multiple layer of criminal activities
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