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Fresh sanctions loom on operators over circulation of pre-registered SIM cards

By Adeyemi Adepetun      
16 November 2016   |   3:43 am
NCC, which said it will jail any person found culpable in the act, further read the riot act to the quartet of MTN, Airtel, Globacom and Etisalat, to, as a matter of priority, call their vendors to order.
SIM registration process

SIM registration process

• NCC to jail dealers, vendor or subscribers culpable   

For the umpteenth time, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has reacted sharply to the increasing sales of pre-registered Subscribers Identity Module (SIM) cards in circulation in the country.

NCC, which said it will jail any person found culpable in the act, further read the riot act to the quartet of MTN, Airtel, Globacom and Etisalat, to, as a matter of priority, call their vendors to order.

The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, urged consumers and members of the public to assist the commission eradicate some fraudulent activities that exist in the country, especially those ones that are within their purview of support.

Danbatta, who was represented by the Head, Public Relations at NCC, Reuben Muoka, at the just concluded Lagos International Trade Fair, said sales of pre-registered SIM cards remained a criminal offence and such act must be discouraged in the country.

“By our regulation, any new number acquired by the subscriber, would be unable to originate calls until such number is registered before it is activated in the network. It also means that nay number that is not registered or activated by the service provider would remain inactive in the network. However, we have a situation where some unscrupulous individuals engage in registering and activating huge number of lines with fraudulent identities with a view to selling them to unwary subscribers who are too busy or too ignorant to understand that they need to have their identities behind their numbers.

“In some cases, those who engage in these activities are trying to hide their real identities for the purpose of using such lines to perpetrate criminal activities in the society,” Danbatta stressed.

The EVC urged consumers and members of the public to alert security agencies where they find anybody engaging in the sale, or use of pre-registered SIM cards, as they pose a serious danger to “our individual and collective safety.”

Danbatta, who disclosed that those found culpable, risk severe penalties of fine and imprisonment, said the commission has also sent serious warnings to the service providers to ensure that their dealers and sub-dealers, who have a role to play in the sale activation of services, are not culpable in the perpetration of the crime.

He explained that NCC’s Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Department was currently going round the country with a view to fishing out the perpetrators.

The Guardian checks showed that Section 19 and 20 of the Nigerian Communications Commission (Registration of Telephone Subscribers) Regulations, 2011 empowers the commission to mete out appropriate sanctions if the menace continued and found to be influenced by the service providers.

Section 19(1) of the Act states that: Any licensee who fails to capture, register, deregister or transmit the details of any individual or corporate subscribers to the Central Database as specified in these Regulations or as may be stipulated from time to time by the Commission is liable to a penalty of N200,000.00 for each subscription medium. (2.) A licensee who activates any Subscription Medium without capturing, registering and transmitting the personal information to the Central Database commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine of N200, 000.00 for each unregistered activated Subscription Medium.

Section 20 (1) revealed that: Any licensee who activates or fails to deactivate a subscription medium in violation of any provision of these Regulations is liable to pay a penalty of N200,000.00 for each unregistered but activated subscription medium. (2) Where the Commission is satisfied that a body corporate is culpable, the Director, Chief Executive Officer, Manager or Secretary shall also be liable to pay a fine of N200, 000.00 unless, having regard to the nature of his functions in that capacity and to all the surrounding circumstances, he proves that- (i) the offence was committed without his knowledge, consent or connivance; and (ii) he took all reasonable precautions and exercised due diligence to prevent the Commission of the breach.

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