The Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC) Thursday confirmed
that telecoms operators lose between
16 and 17 generating sets on daily
basis to miscreants.
The number of losses recorded every
day as revealed by NCC, is equivalent to
over 6,000 losses in one year.
The Director, Technical Standards and
Networking Integrity at NCC, Dr.
Ibrahim Sanni, gave the revelation at
the 54th edition of the NCC organised
monthly consumer parliament, which
held on Thursday in Ikorodu, Lagos
State.
According to him, "the miscreants most
times come under the cover of darkness
to various Base Transceiver Stations
(BTS) to perpetuate crimes."
He said the activities of the faceless
miscreants were impacting negatively
on service quality, since the operators
use the generating sets to power each
BTS.
Telecoms operators who do not rely on
Power Holding Company of Nigeria
(PHCN) for electric power to run their
BTS, fully relied on their generating
sets, and each BTS has two generating
sets, with one as standby.
"Based on the arrangement, telecoms
operators usually have challenges of
poor service quality as a result of the
activities of the miscreants, which lead
to service disruptions and downtime on
various networks," Sanni said.
He added that the NCC, in collaboration
with the Ministry of Communications
Technology, has presented a bill to the
National Assembly to consider telecoms
facilities as critical national
infrastructure.
The bill when passed into law will make
it a criminal offence for anyone to
destroy, or steal telecoms facilities.
Sanni listed other crimes committed by
miscreants to include theft of diesel,
theft of batteries, destruction of
equipment at telecoms site, fibre cable
cuts, and sometimes killing of security
guards who put up some forms of
resistance.
Sanni, who frowned at the activities of
miscreants, said telecoms operators
were licenced to serve Nigerians, and
that Nigerians involved in the act, were
only creating setback to the Nigerian
economy. He called on Nigerians to
guard against telecoms facilities and
report any case of vandalism on
telecoms facilities to security agents.

SOURCE: www.thisdaylive.com/articles/telcos-lose-6-000-generators-in-one-year-to-miscreants/139567/

I didn't know telecom generartor theft was not a criminal offence, its now they're just passing bill. Miscreants una don hear? Dey don pass bill o .