Mobile telephone subscribers on Monday in Abuja decried the demand for payment before registering SIM cards at some registration centres.
Some subscribers made the complaints in separate interviews.
Mrs Sarah Odey, a civil servant, said that she was asked to pay the sum of N100 before she could register her SIM card of one of the major service providers in the country..
Odey said that the agent registering for the network provider at Nyanya Plaza in Nyanya, FCT insisted that she must pay before her SIM could be registered.
“I was asked to pay N100 by the agent registering for the network at Nyanya Plaza before he could register me.
“And when I refused to pay, he asked me to leave the queue and the man next to me paid and was registered.
“I want the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to do something about this act of corrupt network agents defrauding the public.’’
Odey called on the commission to investigate this act of fraud and arrest the accomplice.
Mr Johnson Attah, a clothes seller, told NAN that he paid the sum of N100 before he was registered at Ado junction in Mararaba axis in Nasarawa State.
Attah said that he paid the money as soon as he was asked to pay because of the stress of registering his SIM card.
He explained that he registered in 2012, only to receive an SMS that he should come and register his SIM card.
“I went to the office of the provider to register my SIM but the queue was so long and at the end of the day I was unable to register it.
“I paid the N100 because of the stress I encountered while trying to register my SIM card but some persons in the queue refused to pay and as soon as I registered, I was sent a message that my SIM had been registered.’’
Attah said that it was unfair for the providers to demand for money before SIM cards could be registered, “I am calling on the regulator to tackle this issue of payment.
“I thought this registration was meant to be free, why are they demanding for money before SIM could be registered?”
Mr Oladipe Sulieman, a food seller, said that he went to register because NCC ordered that any SIM card that was not registered after June 30 would be banned.
Sulieman said, “I paid N100 before my SIM was registered. This country is turning to another thing; nothing is free.’’
Responding, the Director, Public Affairs NCC, Mr Tony Ojobo, said that registration of SIM cards was free, and that was the official position.
Ojobo urged subscribers to go to their different networks’ offices and register their SIM cards, adding that they should not pay any money for registration of SIM cards.
He gave assurance that the commission’s Compliance, Monitoring and Enforcement Department would investigate the issue, adding that anyone found wanting would be arrested and prosecuted.’’
The development may not be unconnected with the June 30 deadline given by the NCC for the closure of registration of old SIM cards.
Source NAN
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