SIM Disconnection: FCT residents besiege NIMC office for synchronisation

The crowd at Abuja office of National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) last week was not just amazing but frightening. These were Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) subscribers whose lines have either been disconnected or on the verge of being disconnected by their telecommunication service providers from the networks because of failure to link their lines to their National Identity Numbers (NINs).

Last Friday, the Wuse Zone 3 office of the commission was almost like a market place. As early as 7:00 am, affected subscribers have besieged the office seeking to be attended to. One of them who spoke to Inside Abuja, said he had been visiting the office for two days. “My line has been barred, and I have been here for the past 48 hours. Today na today. I am not going home until they answer me,” he said. Identity synchronisation The subscribers came for different purposes – fresh NIN registration, NIN-Bank Verification Number (BVN) synchronisation, printout of captured details, mistake in name or date of birth, aong others. NIMC officials and security personnel had hectic task controlling them. The situation was further compounded by system failure – power failure and network glitch.

At a point during the exercise, the system collapsed completely, it took more than an hour before services could be restored. The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) had given telecom subscribers February 28 deadline to link their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards to their NIN or risk being disconnected from the networks. There are three sets of subscribers to be affected, according to the NCC. The first set are those whose SIMs have not been link to their NINs. And this took effect on February 28 resulting in disconnection of some lines from the network. Hundreds of telecommunication subscribers in Abuja have been making serious efforts to link their mobile lines to their National Identity Numbers (NINs) to restore disconnected lines, writes ONYEKACHI EZE The second set are subscribers whose NINs have been submitted but not verified.

Those concerned have up till March 29 to do so or they will also be disconnected. The third set are those who have less than five lines linked to an unverified NINs. This group will be disconnected by April 15. The commission said there would be no extension on the timeline, even though there is a subsisting court order. At the expiration of the deadline of February 28, telecom operators reportedly barred about 12 million lines that have not been linked to the owners’ NINs. NCC and deadline This was the third time NCC was giving GSM subscribers the order to link their SIM to NIN or be disconnected from mobile networks.

The first order was on December 15, 2020, but following rapid compliance, the commission rescinded the order. It was reported that about 47.8 million linked their SIM to NIN as at January 19, 2021 when the second order ended. At the moment, about 21 million subscribers are believed to have not linked their SIM. Nigeria is said to have about 224 million active mobile lines. As the deadline drew close and with no sign of possible extension, a Federal High Court in Lagos, on February 22, restrained telecom operators from deactivating or barring any line or SIM not linked to their NINs. Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa who gave the order, did so based on an application by a Lagos-based lawyer, Olukoya Ogungbeje. Legal suit Ogungbeje, in a suit marked FHC/L/CS/667/23, sued the Federal Government of Nigeria, the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation and Minister of Justice, as well as service providers, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, and Airtel Network Nigeria Limited, asking the court for an injunction pending appeal, ‘’restraining all the respondents jointly or severally, whether, by themselves, their agents, outlets, agencies, privies, officials, servants, men, parastatals, units, organs, or anybody or person however so called, from taking any step or action capable of enforcing the judgment in anyway and from further outright barring, deactivating and or restricting any SIM cards or his phone Lines, or of any Nigerian Citizen, slated for February 28, 2024, or any other scheduled date, pending the hearing and determination of his appeal at the Court of Appeal, against the court’s judgement delivered on May 8, 2023, by Justice Lewis-Allagoa.’’

The order, it now appeared, was not obeyed. The Federal Government said SIM-NIN synchronisation would enable security agencies to track criminals. In 2020 when the policy was first enforced, was the height of banditry in the country. It could also be recalled that telecom services were disconnected in the North East in 2012 at the heat of Boko Haram insurgency in the region. Security implications Former President Muhammadu Buhari at the launch of the National Policy for the Promotion of Indigenous Content in Nigerian Telecoms Sector and Revised National Identity Policy for SIM Cards Registration in Abuja in May 2021, expressed the belief that SIM card-NIN synchronisation would help to cover the nation’s security structure and identify the criminals terrorising Nigeria. “We will be able to easily identify and know the personality of Nigerians. We will identify people easily, including the crooks,” Buhari said. But despite this promise, kidnappers still reach families of victims through telephone lines and Nigerians have kept wondering why the criminals could not be tracked, or disconnected from the network. This has cast serious doubts on the SIMNIN linkage policy.

The immediate past Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, in a recent tweet, blamed it on the failure by the security agencies to utilise the generated data from the SIM-NIN synchronisation. According to him, “The NIN-SIM policy has been working. However, the relevant institutions fighting criminality are to be requested to ensure they utilise it effectively when crime is committed.” Pantami added that lack of utilisation is the main problem, not the policy. “While in office, I know three instances where the policy was utilised, and it led to the success of their operations. “On the lack of utilisation, I am more worried than anyone as my life was threatened by criminals for reintroducing it, including on the BBC Hausa and national dailies. I resisted and ensured its implementation. If it is not being utilised by the relevant institutions in charge of securing lives and property, then I am more frustrated than any person as I sacrificed my life and ignored all threats to life.”