There is no rumination behind many of our "solutions" to problems.

Quote: “When the SIM card registration exercise began, we did not know that people will register hundreds of SIM cards and begin to sell them. When we discovered that about a month ago, we warned people against it in our jingles.”

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201109110371615
By Everest Amaefule
Sunday, 11 Sep 2011

The arrest of five persons by security operatives for allegedly selling preregistered Subscriber Identification Module cards last week marked a new twist in the process of SIM card registration which has been praised by both critics and proponents.

A joint patrol of the Nigerian Communications Commission and the Nigerian Police had on Wednesday arrested the five people for selling preregistered SIM cards to customers who did not want to go through the process of SIM card registration.

They were arrested in two popular places where telecommunications products and services are rendered in the Federal Capital Territory — the GSM Village and in front of the premises of a digital mobile operator.

Head of Media and Public Relations at the telecommunications regulatory agency, Mr. Reuben Muoka, told journalists that those arrested in the exercise would face the wrath of the law, adding that other parts of the country were also being monitored.

According to him, undercover security operators had investigated all the five culprits before they were arrested and taken into custody at the Metro Police Station in the Maitama area of Abuja.

One of the men arrested, Mr. Daniel Elom, claimed that he procured the SIM cards from a dealer who told him that the SIM cards were activated for Internet modems but not preregistered. According to him, he bought each of the SIM cards for N500 and sold each for N1000.

Muoka said it was unlawful for anyone to sell or buy new preregistered SIM cards, adding that any operator or dealer that was found culpable in the exercise would also be made to face the consequence of contravening NCC’s regulation on registration of SIM cards.

He said, “We have just accomplished a task by arresting five people involved in the sale of preregistered SIM cards. The offence carries a liability of imprisonment, fine or both.

“The individuals arrested were involved in the sale of preregistered SIM cards contrary to the regulation on SIM card registration which outlawed the sale of new SIM cards that have been preregistered.

“The implication is that armed robbers and kidnappers can buy these cards and use them because their identities are not there. We used undercover agents who had already bought SIM cards from those involved.

“When the SIM card registration exercise began, we did not know that people will register hundreds of SIM cards and begin to sell them. When we discovered that about a month ago, we warned people against it in our jingles.”

Mouka said the sale of preregistered SIM cards could derail the purpose of SIM card registration, adding that more arrests would be made across the country.

Experts are agreed on this. The Federal Government had embarked on the SIM card registration because of the increasing wave of crimes assisted by telecommunications as criminals hide in the anonymity of telephone access to commit crimes such as kidnapping and robbery.

The rationale is that if the owner of each SIM card in the country is known, it would be easy to trace any crime committed with the aid of a phone to a person.

It therefore stands to reason that if a good number of SIM cards that cannot be identified with the rightful owners and users are allowed to circulate in the country, the purpose of the registration could be jeopardised.

It is also apparent that those that are involved in registering and selling SIM cards do not understand the implication of such a business as crimes committed with the SIM cards can be traced to them.

There is fear, among some observers, that some unsuspecting poor people could have even been used to register such SIM cards in large quantities.

According to industry experts, there is a need for NCC and operators to step up the education of the populace.

Muoka said the regulatory agency had been doing its best in this regard. According to him, the agency has been leveraging the existence of its outreach programmes to create more awareness on the ongoing registration exercise.

The commission has in the past six years entrenched consumer focused outreach programmes such as the Consumer Parliament, the Consumer Outreach programme and Town Hall Meeting all of which provide avenue for subscribers to lay their complaints and concerns to the participating operators in the presence of the regulator.

In recent times, Muoka said, the commission had dedicated the outreach programmes on the ongoing SIM card registration programme to a good effect and officials said the outreach programmes have offered a good platform for full interactions with all the subscribers from various parts of the country to share relevant information on the SIM registration programme.

He said the Executive Vice Chairman of the commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah, had directed that all such programmes be dedicated to SIM registration.

“The dedication of the commission in leveraging these outreach programmes underscores the importance attached to the exercise to ensure that all subscribers register their SIM cards for the security and other benefits to themselves and the nation,” he said.

Muoka said the interesting aspect of the outreach programmes in all parts of the country were the similarities in the types of experiences subscribers had especially as it relates to receiving text messages after registration, double registration, location of registration centres and extortion of money from subscribers.

He added that the forums provided opportunity for the agency to explain procedures to subscribers, for instance that those who purchase new SIM cards have no business with NCC appointed agents but must go to their operators who have the equipment to activate such SIM cards before they can enjoy their services.

On the other hand, those engaged in illegal preregistration of new SIM cards including buyers and operators alike, would be prosecuted as new SIM cards should be personally registered by the owners with the service providers before they are activated.

“In all, the commission has explained that SIM card registration is free and that all those collecting money on account of SIM registrations should be arrested when they are sited,” Muoka added.

In addition to whatever the agency has done, experts say now is the time for both operators and the regulatory agency to collaborate and stop every person bent on derailing the registration process through the sale of preregistered cards.

Cards that have also been pre-registered by wrong persons also need to be identified and destroyed because when they fall into the wrong hands, the consequence could mar the process on which tax payers’ N6.1bn has been invested.

Selling pre-registered SIM cards should be made a crime with a long jail term under the anti-terrorism act.
Its easy to see that the likes of boko haram would be most interested in buying such SIM cards so that bombs can't be traced back.

The people don't look like future Boko Haram to me,they look more like. Okrika merchant out of capital

The registration process is too disorganized and sometimes cumbersome. The purpose will end up being defeated. A national database should have been opened and made available online for easy access and such that multiple registrations can be tracked. But then, what should be the maximum number of line each person can register? NCC please, do the thinking!

Collecting peoples' biological details without adequate protection act. What a silly thing

A government that cannot protect it's peoples vital bio-data information is now arresting and jailing them for trying to protect themselves by avoiding giving out the information?

Nigeria is turning back into a dictatorial police state. A dysfunctional democracy where hapless citizens are at the mercy of incompetent but brutal leaders and their selected representatives.


Even in America with their Big brother patriots act and war against terrorism, They still allow you the option of buying pre-paid mobile phone service with privacy, without submitting your vital details or registering.



From wiki

A concern of police and security agencies worldwide is that prepaid mobile services allow the user to be anonymous and therefore facilitate criminal, or terrorist activities. Prepaid phone users can be anonymous for two reasons:

the prepaid SIM card can be sold in a shop like any other goods. There is no need to register them at point of sale, unlike postpaid phones who have to credit check the user before allowing them to purchase and enter into a contract.
Because prepaid services can often be topped up using cash and vouchers, there is no way to trace the payment and hence determine the identity of a prepaid phone user from payment records.

It has been suggested that a solution to this problem is to register the users of prepaid mobile phones. Such legislation faces heavy opposition from providers and consumers of prepaid service, as many consumers who desire privacy for legitimate purposes or simply by personal preference find anonymity to be the primary selling point of prepaid phones. According to a 2005 study[6] 9 of 24 surveyed OECD countries require prepaid mobile users to register.

These countries are Australia, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Slovak Republic, South Africa and Switzerland.

The freedom and privacy allowed by prepaid cell phones might help circumvent government oppression and censorship, allowing improved reporting and coordination of dissidents under oppressive regimes.

While there is no doubt that criminals and terrorists use telecommunication services, to date there has been no public study that has clearly examined the possible link of non-registration of prepaid mobile phones to greater risk of criminal or terrorist activities. However, mandatory registration may be a breach of a prepaid user privacy, and currently the question various jurisdictions have decided on or are examining is whether this privacy breach is an appropriate action versus the threat that anonymous usage of prepaid services pose.

Apart from the OECD report reference on wikipedia, this column contains some arguments for and against pre-paid registration
http://m.blogs.computerworld.com/16200/pre_paid_burners_aid_terrorists_so_must_be_banned?


My argument is simply this: In a disorganized country like Nigeria, only a LUNATIC should confidently trust the Government with protecting their privacy.

Whatever the benefits of pre-paid registration is, this government cannot take advantage of it or even protect the privacy of regular citizens to justify it's implementation.

An administration that cannot keep a good record of it's own budget implementation? Gimme a break 

why are Nigerians so lazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A joint patrol of the Nigerian Communications Commission and the Nigerian Police had on Wednesday arrested the five people for selling preregistered SIM cards to customers who did not want to go through the process of SIM card registration.

what is hard about this infact individually we lack alot! not even the politics!

efisher:

The registration process is too disorganized and sometimes cumbersome. The purpose will end up being defeated. A national database should have been opened and made available online for easy access and such that multiple registrations can be tracked. But then, what should be the maximum number of line each person can register? NCC please, do the thinking!

how many ppl have access to internet! the ones that have through free sheats(abi settings) dunno what they call it cant even access such site! even cyber cafes in cities collects not less than 100 per H talkmore of rural area, mitchew!

I see no reason why i should buy a pre-registered sim card except if i want to use it for nefarious activities.
Why would i pay N1000 for a sim card in 2011?

When they can't protect the information they're gathering. Nigeria has not begin to experience cyber attacks and all that. Look at how and who are gathering the information on the streets and bio-metric info for that matter. Even when wikileaks just revealed this fools are gonna release the public key to read our RFID / information on the Nigerian passport to other countries just like that

of what good is SIM CARD registration,why dont they register IME number of mobile phonees instead,idiots.

Who's fault is it, the Yoruba or ibo or Housa or SS's fault. Oya lets go bigot. lol

I guess I should be worried about going to jail because my simm was registered by one of my friend. . . . .

I had an argument about Pre-Reg Sims with a Police friend of mine, telling him it won't work in Nigeria and makes no sense anyway, I asked him why would a kidnapper make a ransom demand with his phone rather than kidnap victim's phone, he shook his head saying I must be Kidnapper or a Militant.

Whenever you see or hear about a govt agency pushing for a particular policy implementation, know that someone somewhere is getting paid, Pre-Reg budget was 5.5B naria.

whao! this is crazy

Why am I not surprised? Lol. I outrightly condemned the SIM registration exercise when it was announced. This, ladies and gentlemen, is Nigeria. A country that excels only in the unexcellent (excuse my poetic licence). Do you know that for those of us (including my humble self) that were foolish enough to register with our genuine particulars (real names, addresses, professions, et al), our entire information is now available to fraudsters and crooks of all kinds? ? ? Certain characters now have access to the database of millions of mobile phone users in this God-forsaken country. This is a fact; for those of you who did not know, consider it breaking news.

The new dimension of 'local' 419 now thrives on text messages, no longer email. Just a few days ago, my mum called me to help her send an email to 'Nokia' pertaining to confirmation of "something". Knowing my dear mum - how gullible she is, how she thinks I'm too 'critical', and therefore often prefers embarking on ill-considered ventures without my knowledge/approval, I immediately knew that she had fallen for the same scam I had laughed off a few days earlier. Some 'sharp guys' had sent me an SMS, addressed to me with my REAL name and surname, telling me I'd won £60,000 pounds in a Nokia promo, that I should confirm my details with Nokia, and then complete the 'documentation process' before I receive my winnings. Lol. As a street boy who has seen all and done (almost) all, I didnt have to finish reading the yeye text message to know it was a scam. But my mum fell flat for it (because they mentioned her full names and occupation/address). I had to forward the text I'd earlier recived to her to convince her it was a scam. Even then, she was stilll a bit reluctant to believe it was a scam. I can't even imagine how many people that must have been scammed this way. Thanks to sim registration.

The bottomline is that Nigeria is a total joke. Some smart alecs in NCC would have devised some under-the-table means of selling portions of the sim registration database to all manners of people with ulterior motives (scammers, kidnappers, assassins, blackmailers, etc.). If some dumb fools thought the sim registration exercise would reduce kidnapping/crime, they were wrong: it would in fact help make riminals work easier. Welcome to Nigeria.

I've given up on this country. As long as it remains the norm to put the cart before the horse, then there'll be no hope.

aieromon:

I see no reason why i should buy a pre-registered sim card except if i want to use it for nefarious activities.
Why would i pay N1000 for a sim card in 2011?

Because you don't want to give out your ID that may be stolen
You can be sitting here in Nigeria and be committing a crime in Colombia
Mossad (Israeli spy agency) agents entered Dubai about 2 years ago to carry out an assasination
They used the IDs of Brition, Swiss, New Zealanders etc
Would you like to be in Nigeria an be killing somebody in Dubai?

quote]The bottomline is that Nigeria is a total joke. Some smart alecs in NCC would have devised some under-the-table means of selling portions of the sim registration database to all manners of people with ulterior motives (scammers, kidnappers, assassins, blackmailers, etc.). If some dumb fools thought the sim registration exercise would reduce kidnapping/crime, they were wrong: it would in fact help make riminals work easier. Welcome to Nigeria.

[quote][/quote]

Hahahaha, I gat noting to say

simply ban any person registering more than one sim card of the same telephone line at a time

Its good to see that so many people now oppose this senseless policy. We've finally started thinking with our brains.

I've been telling people that there's no way the GSM companies are going to deliberately block millions of paying customers' lines. If enough people refuse to register, then SIM card registration will be defeated.

abelian:

simply ban any person registering more than one sim card of the same telephone line at a time

Do you also ban people from buying and owning more than 1 Cellphone? . What happens when you phone is lost or stolen and then used to commit a crime without your knowledge, try getting out police net when you are a nobody It's really sad that organizations like NBA, Civil Liberties etc did not speak up, demand for answers considering potential for abuse.

I registered my Sim just before the April elections, all of a sudden I was getting text with my name telling me to vote against Mrs Tinubu, while I'm resident in Rivers State, I got plenty of Vote 4 Me text from Abia, Delta and Rivers State, question is how did they know my name?

they are foools, they dont think before they implement things, what they think about na their own interest,

this is not fair, i think u people want to stop your business

this is not fair, i think u people wan't to stop your business

they should have created an identity database first. Instead the head of NIMC is busying buying range rover and shagging his subordinates. Visionless clowns.