The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, has explained that bandits and other criminal groups now use advanced communication methods that make it hard for security agencies to trace their calls, including ransom negotiations.
Speaking on Channels TV on Friday night, December 12, Tijani said criminal activity within Nigeria’s telecom space is “far more technical” than many people realise, despite government efforts to strengthen identification and monitoring systems.
He was responding to concerns over how kidnappers continue to place ransom calls using unidentified lines, years after the introduction of the mandatory National Identification Number (NIN)–SIM linkage designed to curb anonymous communication.
According to the minister, telecom operators previously carried out a nationwide SIM-cleanup exercise, but criminals have since adopted more complex technologies.
“There was an exercise conducted by the telcos to clean out SIMs. The reason the President directed us to invest in towers in those areas was because we discovered a special kind of technology criminals were using to make calls,” Tijani said.
He explained that these groups now mask their locations by routing calls through several telecom towers, making tracking extremely difficult.
“They are not using normal towers; they bounce calls off multiple towers. That is why they prefer to operate in areas that are unconnected,” he added, noting that poor network coverage in remote regions makes the tactic even more effective.
Tijani also revealed that Nigeria is currently the only West African country operating its own communications satellites, a capacity the government is working to strengthen to address security gaps.
“That is why we are upgrading our two satellites — so if our towers fail, our satellites can still function,” he said.
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