The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has revealed that pictures of goats were used for SIM card registration by some agents. Efosa Idehen, the commission’s head of Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement said yesterday (Monday) that many agents are also using pictures of foodstuffs in place of SIM card owners.
Idehen told the News Agency of Nigeria in Ibadan that the discoveries were made when the commission reviewed the registration details submitted to the NCC by the agents.
He said: “It may interest you to know that after the telephone operators might have completed their own part of the registration and forwarded it to us as the regulators; we sometimes find pictures of goats and yams. We also do find pictures of women with men’s name and vice versa. When information got to the NCC that some people were buying SIM cards without their biometrics, it became worrisome to us because the main purpose of SIM card registration was going to be defeated.
“Our findings also showed that those SIM cards that were not registered were those used by criminals like kidnappers.
“It may also interest you to know that these already pre-activated SIM cards are usually sold at a premium sum of N1, 500 as against N100 for the normal ones.
“We have had to sanction GSM operators in the past for not monitoring the activities of their agents.
“Anyone who sells fully activated SIM cards is as guilty as the person who registers the card because they are not supposed to be registered before sale.
“In Osun state, I arrested some teenagers of 13 and 14 years of age, took them to their parents and verbally warned them that what their children were doing would land them in problem.”