Ghana Police arrests illegal SIM card operators

Government is losing more than GH¢40 million on the operations of illegal SIM cards.

Commissioner of Police (COP) Prosper Kwame Agblor, Director of General of Criminal Investigations Department (CID) made this known at a media conference in Accra.

“As a result the CID Headquarters set up a task force in collaboration with the National Communications Authority and the various Telecommunications Service providers to clamp down on the activities of illegal sim card operations,” he said.

He said on October, 2010 11 cases had been reported to the police and the task force arrested one Ghanaian by birth but with Italian Nationality who was operating illegal sim card at Dome in Accra.

He said it was established that the suspect had operated the service for about 18 months and the total loss to the country and the service providers amounted to $12 million.

COP Agblor, stated that On June 27, the task force conducted operations which resulted in the arrest of six operators one Nigerian and five Ghanaians.

“Five GOIP sim card equipment, three sim card machines, six heavy duty batteries and one UPS inverter were sized from them.”

He called on the public to be vigilant and help the police to flash out the fraudsters.

Mr Edward Omane Boamah, Minister of Communications expressed gratitude to the task force for the superior work.

He said the necessary action would be taken against the illegal sim card operators.

Mr Omane said the telecommunication service providers must be careful about the registration of sim cards.

“Nobody and no corporate institution would be spared on this matter,” he warned.

He urged the public and network operators to support the police to deal with the activities of illegal sim card operators.

Source: GNA