72 hours to deadline: Subscribers rush to register SIM cards •Date stands - NCC

SUBSCRIBERS have started making last minutes’ rush to register their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards, with a view to meeting the June 30 deadline set for all SIM cards to be registered in the country. Nigerian Tribune, which visited some SIM card registration stands in parts of Lagos, including Ikeja, observed that there were long queues of people who wished to have their SIM cards registered. All the SIM card registration stands visited became a beehive of activities, as registration officers were seen having a hectic time attending to hundreds of subscribers who wished to have their cards registered, in an attempt to avoid having their cards disconnected by their service providers. Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, a registration officer at Agege area, simply identified as Aduke, said it had been a busy week for her since everyone seemed to have taken the June 30 deadline date serious. “We have had to register more SIMs this week compared to the past few months. You see, people rush here out of their supposed busy schedules, because they do not want their lines disconnected,” Aduke stated. It will be recalled that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) announced that subscribers who failed to meet the June 30 SIM registration deadline would be held responsible for their actions, as the date would not be extended. The commission had also declared that all SIM cards, including those used in data-enabled devices such as Fastlink internet dongles, iPads, laptops, Point of Sale terminals (POS), Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs), as well as those embedded in car-tracking devices, which remained unregistered by the stated date would be disconnected. The Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Mr Tony Ojobo, while speaking with the Nigerian Tribune in a telephone conversation, said the commission had given enough time since March 2011, hence there was no excuse whatsoever for any unregistered old SIM card. “The deadline stands, we are not changing it for any reason. Any subscriber who ignores the date does so at his detriment. They have had enough time to register since 2011 and the commission cannot continue to listen to subscribers’ excuses,” Ojobo said. Another SIM registration attendant, Micheal Lawal, said there had been a “mad rush” as the deadline date drew. He said “we now work tirelessly unlike the past few weeks when subscribers come around. I know that in the next 36 hours, more people will come to register their lines.” A subscriber, who simply gave his name as Chinedu, said his service provider kept on sending him messages every five minutes for him to register, and so he decided to register before being disconnected. “I received the message that my SIM was not registered about a couple of weeks ago but I ignored it. Now I have taken it serious and I created time out of my busy schedule just to meet up with the deadline,” Chinedu explained. culled from Tribune News