The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), in collaboration with security agencies, has arrested three agents of service providers in Awka for allegedly flouting SIM card registration guidelines.
NCC’s Head of Enforcement, Mr Efosa Idehen, who gave the names of the suspects to newsmen in Awka on Sunday, explained that they were arrested while using the SIM registration machines fraudulently.
According to him, they were arrested for pre-registering SIM cards with the same thump-prints and selling same to members of the public.
Idehen said their machines had been confiscated and that they would be prosecuted after police investigation.
“NCC’s policy is that SIM cards are registered with bio-metric data
of the individual owner obtained directly and not through proxy.
“Aside from using it to fight criminals, NCC uses the data for other purposes. But these days, we find people buying cards and registering with fake names and bio-data,” Idehen said.
The head of enforcement advised the people not to buy such cards, saying they should register their cards themselves.
“When you buy any SIM card, you have 30 days to make calls if you can`t register it immediately, but every SIM card must be registered within the 30 days of purchase,” he said.
He said the police would thoroughly investigate the three culprits, saying it was easy to know the service providers they worked for because the machines and their agents were stored in the data base of the NCC. (NAN)