The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) asserts that it is the responsibility of the Nigeria Police Force to trace bandits and kidnappers by utilizing the National Identification Numbers (NINs) of victims associated with their SIM cards.
Reuben Muoka, spokesperson for the NCC, appearing on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief program on Monday, emphasized that the aim of linking NINs with SIM cards is to provide Nigerians with digital identity to address security concerns.
In January, a tragic incident occurred in the Bwari area of Abuja where seven members of a family, including six sisters, were abducted. The kidnappers demanded approximately N100 million as ransom. Tragically, one of the victims, Nabeeha Al-Kadriyar, was killed, while the others were eventually released.
Former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, previously stated that security forces were not utilizing NINs to track down kidnappers and other criminals. However, none of the security agencies have refuted the minister’s assertion.
Asked on Monday why kidnappers weren’t tracked despite that they contact the families of their victims using phone numbers, the NCC spokesman said, “lt’s difficult to begin to attend to issue that bandits, for instance, use a phone of the victim to make calls to the family because there is nothing one can do about it except the security agencies find a way around it.
“This is the reason we are talking about NIN-SIM linkage because we are taking about the people using phones to have their identities to help security agencies to track such calls.
“It is a duty of security agencies. We are providing all the necessary (information).”
Muoka said “it is the police that they (victims’ families) will apply to. From the rank of Deputy Police commissioner and below, they will be able to do the tracking.
“The essence of submitting these identities is to also assist the security agencies in fighting crimes. They may not tell you the number of crimes they have also resolved by use of well-identified individuals using phones.”