Mobile phones-Nigeria - Indications emerged yesterday in Abuja, that registered SIM cards in the country had hit 110,433,976, showing an increase in the number of mobile phones used by Nigerians. However, a mild drama played out at the Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday as the Nigeria Comminication Commission (NCC) re-arrested one Anthony Onwujekwe, whom it referred to as the King of Piracy.

But Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, who announced the registered SIM card figures at a media parley with top media executives and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) correspondents in Abuja, said: "On coming into office, there was a long list of expectations of things I must pay urgent attention to, a primary decision towards realising the foremost policy direction was the SIM card registration.

"I am happy to announce that the SIM card registration will soon come to an end, and as we speak, we have a combined registration of 110, 433, 976 SIM cards that have been registered and the data is going through processing and cleaning at the NCC," he said.

The registration which was carried out by NCC and network operators, according to the commission head, needed verification to ascertain discrepancies in the new released numbers and the country's telephone penetration, which stood at 95,886,714 lines. There is a clear evidence of multiple registration. These would be eliminated to create a data base of integrity."

He said: "We have broad plans for broadband deployment to enable us reach the undeserved and unserved parts of the country. To implement this, we have adopted the open access model as platform; we are also looking at resuscitating the fixed line sector by giving out new licenses and in doing this, increase telephony penetration," Juwah told newsmen at the briefing.

And with increasing complaints by consumers on the dilly-dally approach of NCC to poor services rendered by telecoms operators, Juwah vehemently denied that the commission was protecting and shielding service providers.

He explained that at no time had the commission protected service providers. "We cannot protect service providers; if there are problems, we have always tackled them with operators but we should know that network operators are also contributing in developing our country, they provide millions of jobs to Nigerians, more than any other sector of the economy."

In a related development, Onwujekwe who is standing trial on a three -count charge comprising the offences of illegal production, possession and selling of copyrighted materials, had just a moment earlier been released on bail by Justice Muhammed Idris.

But the moment Onwujekwe stepped out of the court, the security operatives of the NCC pounced on him and whisked him away.

Speaking to journalists on the development, the NCC lawyer, Mr. Obi Ezeilo, said the re-arrest was not a violation of Onwujewe's bail earlier granted by the court.

Ezeilo further explained that the commission had received a fresh set of complaints against onwujekwe which necessitated that he should be re-arrested.

He added that Onwujekwe would be released if it is found out that the fresh allegations against him were not genuine.

Meanwhile, Onwujekwe's lawyer, Mr. Theodore Ezeobi (SAN), was not in the court yesterday and so could not witness the plight of his client.

It would be recalled that Justice Idris had earlier revoked Onyekwe' bail and issued a bench warrant against him for allegedly not coming to court to face his trial after being granted bail.

But at the yesterday proceedings, after the judge satisfied himself that Onywujekwe was in court at the two last adjourned date, he withdrew the bench warrant and reinstated his bail.

However, Onywujekwe's ecstasy was short-lived as he was immediately pounced upon by the security operatives of the NCC the moment he stepped out of the courtroom.

In the charge filed against him by the NCC, Onwujekwe was accused of producing, possessing and selling about 100,000 infringing copies of musical works, sound recordings and cinematographic films in CD, VCD and DVD formats of various titles and of diverse popular musicians.

The musicians whose works were alleged to have been pirated by Onwujekwe without authorisation include Yinka Ayefele, Olu Maintain, 9ice, Osita Osadebe, Oliver De Coque, Kelly Hansome, Idris Abdul Kareem and P. Square.

The offences were alleged to contravene section 20 (1) (a), (2) of the Copyright Act, CAP C 28 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria. 2004.

By Davidson Iriekpen And Paul Obi

This Day/22/02/2012