Allison Madueke’s husband company-Interconnect Cleaning House Nigeria Limited- has been named among six companies perpetrating call masking fraud in the Nigeria Telecommunication industry and that it has been using the illegal manipulating call rates technology to defraud millions of mobile network subscribers and cooperate enterprises in the country to the tune of UN-estimated billion of dollars.
Other call technology interconnection clearing companies culpable include; Medallion Communications Limited, Niconnx Communication Limited, Breeze Micro Limited, Solid Inter connectivity and Exchange Telecommunications Limited respectively.
As revealed on Monday, the industry regulator (NCC) said it has finally concluded due process investigations and it is set to progress with disciplinary actions in the coming week which may not exclude to revoke the operating licences of the companies or suspend them.
It was gathered that the gravity of the fraud and they have used the call masking technology to perpetrate among Nigerians in collaboration with their foreign counterparts has caused mobile phone users and the ICT the industry weight of losses than books can record.
Director, Public Affairs, Tony Ojobo, said the commission and senior operatives from the nation’s security services met with representatives of the said licensees(companies) at the Commission’s Abuja Offices on Wednesday last week to confront them with some of the evidence at the disposal of the Commission and to give them yet another opportunity to defend themselves.
EVC, NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta
Hence, in accordance with the provisions of the Nigerian Communications Act and its subsidiary regulations, Ojobo, in a signed statement made available to www.newswatchnigeria.com said, “the implicated licensees have been given till the 31st of January to show cause why the commission should not either revoke or suspend their operating licenses in view of evidence of their involvement now at the disposal of the Commission and the security agencies.
“Because of the critical impacts of this nefarious practice on national security and consumer experience, the Commission is determined to decisively deal with any of its licensees implicated in the scam.
“We do not want to expose the country to any further embarrassment. At the very least, serious sanctions would be imposed on them if it is found that their involvement does not justify license or revocation of their licenses.”
At a recent industry stakeholder forum NCC explains that call masking and refilling posed serious national security risks, since most people threaten the lives of innocent citizens through calls with masked telephones numbers that cannot be traced to them.
NCC also said most telephone numbers were masked just to defraud the economy.
The operators involved often alter local numbers to get international status in order to avoid been charged with the international rate for terminating such calls on international network, but the operators will charge the local caller with the international rate and pay at the local rate to the international network where the call was terminated.
Ojobo further explained that “the Commission has taken the pains to strictly follow the provisions of the applicable laws so that on one can claim to be unfairly treated, given the severity of the sanctions the Commission is planning to impose.
The statement further contained that customer experience data monitored by the Commission indicates that there has however been a noticeable reduction in the volume of masked calls being received by subscribers.
“This is reflective of the very aggressive measures the Commission is taking to deal with the menace.
“Nonetheless, we are not taking anything for granted. We will continue to aggressively monitor all our licensees regardless of their size or the scope of their operations.
“Anyone found wanting would be strictly dealt with in accordance with law” said the NCC official.
