The Head of Enforcement, Nigerian Communications Commission, Mr. Efosa Idehen, has warned mobile operators and telephone users against the sale of or being in possession of pre-registered SIM cards.

In an interview with journalists in Ilorin, Kwara State on Friday on the sideline of NCC's raid on some service providers, he said they discovered that some service providers were selling pre-registered SIM cards.

Such SIM cards, he noted, were registered with fictitious names and false information.

He warned that the sale or being in possession of pre-registered SIM cards jeopardised and flouted the SIM card registration regulations.

According to him, NCC will ensure that its data base system is not messed up.  He urged service providers to support and cooperate with NCC to ensure compliance with the regulations.

He also said two service providers cooperated with the commission in its raid in Ilorin leading to the apprehension of their agents.

He, however, added that another service provider did not cooperate. He said NCC had taken one of the members of staff of the errant service provider to the police to assist in unravelling the agent of the GSM operators that flouted the NCC regulation.

Idehen said, "For now, the issue of SIM card registration with NCC has stopped. We have asked for the deactivation of all unregistered lines. But we still go to the market and see pre-registered SIM cards.

"We noticed that even operators have these SIM cards. These SIM cards are fully registered in their full pack; not torn, yet they are warehoused in the system of the operators. It is wrong."

Meanwhile, telephone subscribers in many parts of Kwara State have decried frequent system collapse among telecoms service providers in the country.

They spoke during the ninth edition of the Consumer Town Hall Meeting tagged  'Empowering Rural Telecom Consumers' organised by  NCC in Omu Aran City Hall on Sunday.

The telecoms users appealed to service providers to limit the number of text messages usually sent to their cell phones. One of the contributors, a businessman, Mr. Bamidele Ajayi, said mobile telecommunication should not be an avenue for exploitation.