Why Terrorists, Kidnappers’ Phones Could Not Be Tracked – FG

Pantami has revealed the reason the federal government can’t track terrorists’ and kidnappers’ phones.

NewsOnline reports that the federal government has revealed why the phones used by terrorists, bandits, and kidnappers to reach out to families of their victims for ransom payment and negotiations could not be tracked.

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, made this revelation during President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) Administration Scorecard Series (2015-2023) held in Abuja on Thursday.

The minister, who spoke on the failure to nab criminal elements despite the initiative that mandated all citizens to have their National Identification Number (NIN) linked with their phone SIM cards, said the issue falls under cybercrime.

He said: “Cybercrime is under the office of the national security advisor and other security institutions.

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“Our role in cyber security is to ensure we minimize the possibility of a criminal deploying technology to commit a crime. So our work is proactive. At the same time, if the crime is committed and our intervention is required officially, then we will intervene.

“So, here, we need to reintroduce the national NIN and civil registrations when it comes to minimizing the probability of criminals committing a crime. Two, we enforce the NIN registration. NIN registration is by our law in Nigeria; NIN is mandatory for all citizens.”

Speaking further about his ministry’s achievement in the last few years, the Minister said at least sixty-six (66) attempts by hackers from Europe to hack the virtual meetings of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) were foiled.