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Civil Defence, NCC move to protect ICT infrastructure

By Adeyemi Adepetun
06 February 2017   |   1:25 am
The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has promised to intensify surveillance to protect facilities in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

NSCDC

The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has promised to intensify surveillance to protect facilities in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector.

The Acting Deputy Commandant-General (Protection of Critical Infrastructure), Amos Andekein, made the pledge at the weekend when a delegation of NSCDC officials visited the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)’s office.

NCC’s Executive Commissioner (Stakeholders Management), Sunday Dare, presided over the meeting on behalf of the Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta.

The meeting was a follow-up to the one earlier hosted by the National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno, in December 2016.A statement by NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, said the meeting was called to deliberate on ways to protect critical national infrastructure.

Andekein said that the protection of these structures were part of the NSCDC’s core mandate as enshrined in its Act.“We are willing to do just that for the telecommunications sector like we have been doing for the oil and gas sector, oil pipelines and maritime operations,” he said.

Also, NCC’s Head, Legal and Regulatory Services (NCC), Mrs. Yetunde Akinloye, said laws were being fine-tuned with a view to having a successful prosecution of defaulters.She said: “A private member bill was in the offing, which when passed, would make prosecution a lot easier.”

The Guardian had exclusively reported on December 23, 2016, that telecommunications operators lost about 10, 000 generating sets, diesel and other valuables to theft.

The report showed that operators had also suffered some losses through fibre cuts, a situation, the report claimed, had negatively affected NCC’s quality of service.

According to the report, the destruction in the sector was also responsible for the high rate of drop calls, higher calls terminations, undelivered text messages and poorer networks connectivity.

He listed the structures to be protected to include base stations, optic fibre, masts and nip-in-the bud activities of those trading on pre-registered Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) cards.

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