LAGOS (Sundiata Post) – The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has charged Nigerians against purchasing pre-registered SIM cards as they pose a serious danger to their individual and collective safety in the country.
Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, while speaking during the NCC day at the just concluded 30th Lagos International Trade Fair in Lagos called on members of the public to alert security agencies where they find anybody engaging in the sale, or use of preregistered SIM cards.
“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.”
“We are using this opportunity to inform consumers that 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.”
“Those found culpable also risk severe penalties of fine and imprisonment. We have 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 and activation of services, are not culpable in the perpetration of this crime. Our Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement Department is currently going round the country with a view to fishing out the perpetrators,” Danbatta said.
The NCC boss reminded telecom consumers that they can still port their lines if they are not satisfied with a particular network provider.
He said that at the moment, the rules have been reviewed such that if you port to another network and still remain unsatisfied, you can port back, or port to yet another network within 45 days of initial porting, against the initial provision of 90 days.
“We are also urging the consumers to utilize the platform that we have provided for resolution of complaints, by calling on our toll free number 622. We observed that most subscribers do not think that they would have solutions to their complaints but the good news is that more than 75 per cent of complaints lodged on this platform are resolved, immediately and the remainders escalated for resolution. However, we need to understand that the service provider is the first port of call. It is when the service provider fails, that such complaints should be reported to 622,” he stated.