The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), on Wednesday, gave telecommunication operators a seven days ultimatum to deactivate all improper and pre-registered Subscribers Identification Module (SIM) cards or face sanctions.
Pre-registered SIM cards include those that did not capture facial pictures and or fingerprints. Operators were however told to notify such subscribers before deactivation of their SIM cards.
NCC said more than 120 million SIM cards have been registered and transmitted to the central database by the operators, adding that validation exercise reveals a preponderance of unreliable data in terms of incomplete, inaccurate demographic and biometric data.
The Commission, in a statement signed by its Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Tony Ojobo, in Abuja, said it is worried by the seemingly intractable security situation in the country.
According to the statement, the development was as a result of the fallout of a meeting between Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Department of State Service (DSS), the network operators and the NCC
