Mobile phone service providers in the country have been given up to Christmas to comply with a National Communications Authority (NCA) directive which requires them to initiate the process of registering all new SIM card subscribers.
Making its intervention in Accra yesterday, the National Security council Secretariat said the delay by the mobile phone operators to register their SIM card holders was facilitating the rate at which criminals used mobile phones to threaten citizens and commit other crimes, after which the SIM cards were discarded.
Although the mobile phone operators are asking for more time due to resource constraints, the National Security Council Secretariat and the NCA believe the operators are delaying unduly. The Head of Public Information at the Secretariat, Mrs. Jackie Annan, confirmed to the Daily Graphic that the delay in the registration of the SIM cards was disturbing. She referred to a May 5, 2009 Daily Graphic publication in which the operators were directed to speed up the process of registering the SIM cards to help identify customers.
The National Security Coordinator, Lt. Col. Gbevlo-Lartey, also expressed concern over the fact that criminals often intensified their activities bordering on kidnapping, Sakawa and advanced fee fraud when Christmas is approaching. According to him, with the success the police had chalked up in combating violent crime, the security agencies needed to deal with technological crime, noting that It was only when SIM cards were registered that the owners or users could be appropriately identified to facilitate investigations. He said it was unacceptable in these times for anyone to be able to buy a SIM off the street which could not be traced to a specific person, whereas in other countries that was not the situation.
He said the registration of SIM cards would enable the security agencies to identify those who used the technology to commit crime. Lt. Col Gbevlo-Lartey said security was a need-driven effort which warranted a continuing analysis of the security situation, as well as the predisposition of existing in institutions to handle any emergency security threats.
Source: Daily Graphic
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