BANDITRY:
NIGERIA IS THE ONLY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD WHERE BANDITS/KIDNAPPERS USE MOBILE PHONES TO NEGOTIATE RANSOM PAYMENT AND THEY ARE NOT TRACKED.
‘The concern of the federal ministry of communications is to create a so-called National Data Protection Board (NDPB) but not to establish a digital system that will track, digitally demobilise and work with the security agencies to arrest bandits who use mobile phones to negotiate payment of ransom’
It beggars belief as to how a kidnapper will abduct his victim at gun point, take them into the forest and use a MOBILE PHONE for 6 months or more to negotiate ransom payment yet our communications authorities cannot track these criminals using communications technology.
What is the ministry of communications using its huge budget for? The alarming rate at which MOBILE PHONES are used FREELY by kidnappers in our dear country calls for concern.
NO SERIOUS NATION ON EARTH WILL ALLOW KIDNAPPERS USE MOBILE PHONES TO NEGOTIATE RANSOM PAYMENT.
The free use of mobile phones by kidnappers becomes more worrisome when juxtaposed with the fact that these kidnappers have not taken their victims to SPACE, another PLANET or another country. They keep their hostages in Nigeria but our communications authorities cannot establish a digital system that will digitally demobilise any phone calls for ransom payment, track these calls and work with the security agencies to apprehend these criminals and bring them to justice.
Sometime last year in Niamey, Niger Republic, a boy was kidnapped but the authorities stepped up efforts and used information and communications technology (ICT) to track the calls. They were able to trace the mobile phone number to a lady in who’s name the SIM card was registered. The lady eventually took them to where the boy was kept in captivity and the security agencies were able to rescue him.
If Niger Republic can track calls by kidnappers, why can’t Nigeria?
The so-called SIM-NIN registration has now taken over two years without results. If the policy is working as claimed by the ministry of communications, why can’t they trace SIM cards to the registered user and identify any kidnapper whenever he makes any calls for ransom negotiation?
What Nigerians were told when the SIM-NIN registration policy was introduced more than two years ago by the ministry of communications and so-called digital economy was that ‘it will stop kidnapping and check insecurity’ but figures today have proven beyond any iota of doubt that the SIM-NIN policy has FAILED to stop the use of mobile phones by kidnappers during ransom negotiations. The next gambit was 5G. The ministry of communications is now saying that 5G (which Nigeria currently doesn’t have the capacity to deploy) will stop insecurity.
Haba! Enough of these games.
Bandits continue to kidnap and kill innocent citizens, using MOBILE PHONES to negotiate ransom payment unabated. If the kidnapper is denied the use of a mobile phone to negotiate ransom payment, 100% of the problem is solved.
1. Why can’t the ministry of communications BLOCK all UNREGISTERED SIM-CARDS?
Anyone can buy as many SIM cards as they want on the streets of Nigeria at the ease with which they buy PURE WATER. Why this high-level insensitivity even when innocent people are being killed?
2. Why can’t the ministry of communications conduct a proper biometric registration of ALL subscribers such that any SIM card used to perpetuate kidnapping can be traced to the registered user?
The answer as usual will be a prolonged silence.
