The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has warned individuals whose Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards were barred from making calls to be wary of a fraudulent website offering to unblock their lines.
NCC gave the warning in a statement released by public affairs director Ikechukwu Adinde.
The development is coming on the heels of the Federal Government’s directive to telecommunication companies to bar outgoing calls on all unlinked lines.
The statement said the warning became necessary in view of the viral weblink circulated on social media and a few blogs.
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“For the avoidance of doubt, the NCC wishes to state categorically that it never issued such statement, directing subscribers or indicating that subscribers can unbar their SIM without a NIN.
“As such, the originators and peddlers of the spurious message were out to mischievously mislead unsuspecting members of the public and should, therefore, be disregarded in its entirety.
“The Commission will not, under any circumstance, act contrary to Federal Government’s directive to MNOs to bar SIM cards not linked to NINs at the expiration of the last deadline given for the NIN-SIM linkage exercise,” the statement said.
The NCC urged members of the public to disregard the website.
An estimated 72 million SIM cards have been affected by the NIN-SIM linkage policy, which stipulates that all SIM cards should be linked with the National Identification Number (NIN).
The NCC further stressed that affected SIMs will not be unbarred by the service providers until they are linked with the NINs of the SIM holders.
The statement added, “For subscribers that have not registered for their NIN, what to do is to get their SIM registered at accredited centres across the country and then link the NIN with their SIM cards through channels provided by their service providers.
“Secondly, for subscribers with registered NINs, what to do is simply to go and link the NIN with their SIMs through channels provided by their service providers.”
Amos Abba is a journalist with the International Center for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, who believes that courageous investigative reporting is the key to social justice and accountability in the society.