The Economic and financial crime commission EFCC have arrested a man who is in his late thirties for assisting a friend to link his National identity Number NIN to his MTN Subscriber Identity Module, Sim card in Port Harcourt.
According to the EFCC, the victim who runs a mobile shop, sell Registered Subscriber Identity Module, Sim cards to his customers using his personal information and NIN to register it and sell it at the rate of five thousand (5,000) but unknown to him, the sim card is been used to defraud innocent Nigerians of their hard earn currencies.
Recall that Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC, has warned telecoms consumers not to allow their National Identification Number, NIN, to be linked to another person’s Subscriber Identity Module, SIM cards, no matter how close the person is to them.
The commission gave the warning during its third run Telecom Consumer Town Hall on Radio, TCTHR, programme, broadcast live on Human Rights Radio in Abuja.
The event was hosted on the platform of ‘NCC Digital Signature on Radio.’
The NCC Digital Signature on Radio is the flagship radio programme of the commission, created to educate the general public on the mandates of the commission and for sharing salient, consumer-centric and up-to-date information on how NCC is delivering on its mandates.
Speaking during the radio programme focused on the benefits of NIN-SIM Integration, NCC’s Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau, Efosa Idehen, said: “On no account should a telecoms consumer, however, circumstanced, allow another person to register a SIM with another person’s NIN.”
Idehen said compliance with this advice would protect the true owner of the NIN from any liabilities or negative consequences arising from the use of other person’s SIM.
“If the person, whose SIM is linked to your line use his own SIM to commit crimes or any form of atrocities, it is easy to be traced to you and then, you will be dealt with because the SIM is linked to your NIN,” he said.
During the phone-in segment of the radio programme, consumers within Nigeria and in the diaspora, especially from the United Kingdom, Russia and countries like Ghana, among others, were able to call and get clarifications on concerns they had regarding the ongoing NIN-SIM integration in Nigeria.
Efosa was joined in the studio by NCC Director, Public Affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, who was represented by an Assistant Director in the department, Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan; and a Deputy Director, Projects Department of NCC, Mrs. Nnenna Ukoha, who jointly educated consumers on the various aspects of NIN-SIM integration exercise.
During the radio programme, telecoms consumers were reminded repeatedly of the October 31, 2021 deadline for NIN-SIM integration.
The Federal Government had extended the deadline earlier given for the completion of the NIN-SIM linkage to October 31, 2021.
