On Monday, telecommunication companies in Nigeria heeded the Federal Government’s command to bar every unlinked Subscriber Identification Module card with National Identification Number on their various networks, in a bid to control insecurity, extortions, and abductions., the Federal Government through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy had ordered the operators to bar all ongoing calls to unlinked SIM cards in the country.
Officials from some telecom operators have confirmed receiving letters from the Nigerian Communications Commission and have since started barring outgoing calls from all unlinked SIMs on their networks.Reportedly, there has been an increase in terrorist attacks and kidnappers in the West African country who ask for ransom money from families despite Buhari’s solution to link phone lines.
Isa Pantami, Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, disclosed that since the time government started sanitising its database no individual or official with the legal power to ask for bio-data and other information with regards to NIN-SIM for a rescue mission has come forward to ask the ministry for this information.