NCC partners NSCDC to clamp down on pre-registered SIM cards

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says its partnership with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has led to the arrest of four pre-registered Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card sellers in Lagos.

In a statement by the commission on Sunday, NCC said it arrested four persons involved in the pre-registered SIM card crime in Lagos during a three-day comprehensive enforcement.

Speaking on the development, NCC Head of Enforcement Unit, Salisu Abdu, said the latest enforcement was largely informed by a security report from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) about the prevalence of pre-registered SIM cards at some locations in Lagos.

He however expressed satisfaction that the trend appears to be on a decline when compared with what was obtained in the past few years.

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“We visited Computer Village and other markets in Ikorodu. We also visited one in Bariga with the objective of identifying where this sale of pre-registered SIM cards is ongoing. Fortunate enough, it was only in Computer Village that we were able to buy only one SIM card from a mobile agent. We appreciate the level of compliance in Lagos.

“In Alaba Market, we purchased a pre-registered SIM card from an agent, and in Orile we found pre-registered SIM cards on a market woman who, in fact, was seated with a lot of SIM cards being sold to members of the public.

“It’s that same cards that criminals are using to commit a lot of crime and you can now understand why it had sometimes been difficult for security operatives in the course of their investigations of criminal offences to identify people who have actually committed such crimes,” he said.

Abdu added that the commission also arrested two more person who were found selling pre-registered SIM cards at Saka Tinubu market in Victoria Island.

Speaking on the commission’s next line of action, Abdu said investigations would first be carried out by the NSCDC who accompanied the enforcement team during the exercise to ascertain the source of the cards, adding that NCC would apply necessary sanctions on mobile operators of the affected cards.

 

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