The Executive Vice Chairman of Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta asks the institutions of the nation's security sector to sign on to a strategic partnership with the NCC to stop the activities of criminals undermining the operations of the telecommunications industry.
Danbatta stated this in Keffi, Nasarawa State this morning at the North Central Zonal Sensitization Workshop organized by the Commission for personnel of the nation's security agencies. He said the collaboration and partnership is important to enable the Commission to "move steadily in harnessing fully, the potential of telecommunications and to sustain the exponential growth in the sector in view of the central role telecommunication plays in the social and economic development of the nation".
The EVC seized the opportunity of the forum to thank the Office of the National Security Adviser; the Nigeria Police Force; the Department of State Services; the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps; the Nigeria Customs Service; the Federal Road Safety Commission and other agencies involved in security governance for the support they have offered the NCC in its effort to contain telecom crimes.
The Workshop, which was attended by personnel from all these agencies, featured paper presentations covering the gamut of challenges of enforcement processes including the role of ICT in Effective Policing; Challenges of Prosecuting Telecom Offences; Overview of NCC Enforcement Regulations; and Overview of NCC Enforcement Powers under the Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) 2003.
Resource persons at the Workshop include Dr. Solomon Arase, former Inspector General of Police; and Paul Usoro, SAN; as well as the representation from the Commission which includes Efosa Idehen, Head Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement who represented the EVC; Dr. Henry Nkemadu, Deputy Director Research & Development; Helen Obi, Head Zonal Operations; Salisu Abdu, Head Enforcement; GT Mohammed, Assistant Director Legal and Regulatory Services; and Al-Kassim Umar, Head Compliance Monitoring.
It was a highly participatory workshop marked by lively, robust and seminal discussion the Commission will find quite useful in its strategic plan to re-engineer its operations for improved regulatory efficiency, robust stakeholder engagement and better quality of consumer experience.