How to stop kidnapping

Security is everybody’s business.
Kidnapping is becoming very alarming in our country.
It is one of our numerous security challenges in the country.
It has frightened many people away from their farms at a time the government is asking the people to go back to farm.
Everyone knows that, kidnappers use mobile phones in contacting the family or relations of their “abductees” for “ransom.” For this, the government should and or must take very strict measures on the “sales” and “registrations” of SIM card.
Global system mobile communications, GSM, is the world’s most widely used which uses Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) for communication network.
In November 2016, the government through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had banned open registrations of SIM cards; such as, registration under umbrellas or kiosks and or mobile registrations.
Nigerians have not helped matters either, our penchant for “short cut” made us to always ask for an already registered SIM card from street or road-side hawkers.
One wonders how come a street hawker gets hundreds of registered SIM cards for sale.
This must be checked if we are serious about security issues.
It is very sad to note that, the practice of open registration is still ongoing despite the ban.
There is problem with its enforcement of which the government must be very serious about if we are to curb the problem of kidnapping in our society.
SIM card registration is expected to capture a subscriber’s personal information, fingerprints, photograph, and residential address etc.
The registration will make it easier for security agencies to trace a subscriber in case of any criminal act.
Indiscriminate registrations will make tracking very difficult.
In my suggestion, the government should ban both “sales” and “registration” of SIM card by the road-side hawkers.
It should only be “sold” and “registered” by Mobile network operators themselves in their offices with strict regulations.
Let’s the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, adopt a Technology similar to Bank’s Verification Number, BVN, for SIM card in order to “link” all individual registered SIM cards for easer tracking .
Everyone knows about the success story of BVN.
We could have something like SIM Verification Number, SVN, to link all registered SIM cards of an individual irrespective of his network providers.
Let’s also adopt KYC and means of Identification approaches before registration.
Know Your Customer, KYC, means that the Mobile companies should quietly go and verify a subscriber’s address.
The mean of Identification could be either of Voters card or National Identity card or utility bills.
The national security adviser, ministers of defence and interior, DG DSS, other securities agencies and the NCC must pay more attention to the issue of the enforcement of security measures if we are to overcome the issue of kidnapping.
There should be severe punishment on anybody caught selling or registering SIM card by the road-side.
The mobile network operators whose large numbers of SIM cards are found in the hands of road-side hawkers should be fined.
In my observation, using stringent measures on SIM cards “sales” and “registration” will go a long way in curbing the problem of Kidnapping and other security challenges in the country.
Some security experts in 2015 described as a good move when the government enforced a fine of $5.2 billion to MTN network due to its failure to deactivate its unregistered 5.2 million customer’s lines.
Nurudeen Dauda, Kaduna