NCC Confiscates Ecobank's Radio Equipment

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Huhuonline.com can report that Nigeria's telecom regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has confiscated varieties of telecommunications equipment, belonging to Ecobank in Benin City, Edo state capital, for allegedly

 breaching NCC's frequency regulation.
A dependable source disclosed to Huhuonline.com that the regulatory body pounced on the Ecobank branch, along Akpapkava Road, Friday as part of its enforcement of contraventions of frequencies of licensable megahertz bands.

The Head, Media and Public Relations of NCC, Mr Reuben Muoka, also confirmed that that NCC's officials visited the bank as part of the agency's enforcement drive among institutions, especially banks contravening the terms for use of frequencies.

He explained that NCC had issued public notices to warn the institutions to desist from illegally using unauthorised frequencies and 'We have found that lots of banks are still on the bands.'

'We have removed the offending radio at Ecobank from their equipment room. Anybody operating on this illegal frequency will pay some penalties for the length of time they have used it. We are doing this to sanitise the Nigerian frequency space.

'And at this particular bank, we found that apart from the fact that they are using this frequency illegally, they have also affected another licensed operator's frequency.'

According to NCC's Head of Enforcement, Mr Efosa Idehen, 'We are going to remove the offending radios and because they are still on the mast, we will seal off their communication room until they bring down the radios because when we leave, they can turn back the radio into the 5.4 megahertz band.

'This week, we have gone to Enugu, Awka, Asaba and here in Benin we have discovered that the worst offenders have been the banks.'