Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, says bandits and other criminal networks are now deploying sophisticated communication technologies that make it difficult for security agencies to track their activities, including ransom calls.
While speaking on a television programme on Friday night, Tijani said the criminal operations within the telecom space are “far more technical” than many Nigerians realise, despite the Federal Government’s efforts to tighten identification and monitoring systems.
Tijani addressed concerns that kidnappers still negotiate ransoms using unregistered lines, years after the Government introduced the mandatory National Identification Number (NIN)– Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) linkage, aimed at curbing anonymous communication and criminal activities.
According to him, “There was an exercise that was conducted by the telcos to clean out all SIMs. The reason the President pushed us to invest in towers in those areas was the fact that we realised there was a special type of technology they [criminals] were using to call”.
The Minister mentioned that criminal gangs have since evolved, embracing communication tools that allow them to mask their locations by bouncing calls across several telecom towers.
“They are not using the normal towers; they bounce calls off multiple towers. That’s why they enjoy living in areas that are unconnected”, he added, explaining that the tactic becomes more effective in remote locations with poor coverage.
He noted that Nigeria remains the only West African nation currently operating its own communications satellites, a capability the Government is strengthening in order to close security gaps. “This is why we are upgrading our two satellites, so that if our towers are not working, our satellites will work”, he stated.
