The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Tuesday threatened to sanction one of the licensed Value Added Service Operators, TextNigeria Limited, for diverting a short code allotted to it for political campaign without obtaining requisite permission.
TextNigeria Limited had been involved in handling the fundraising for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organisation through the use of the Short Message Service platform on the Global System of Mobile communication networks utilising a short code allocated by the NCC.
However, at a press conference addressed by three of its officials in Abuja on Tuesday, the NCC said the VAS operator obtained the short code for Big Brother Nigeria/Africa in April 2013 and should have written to the agency if it wanted to use the code for anything other than for the purpose for which it was obtained.
The regulator said that it was not wrong for any political party to use the SMS platform to raise funds for campaigns, but added that due process must be followed as it had always insisted.
The Head of Enforcement, NCC, Mr. Idehen Efosa, said the commission would follow the enforcement rules and sanction the TextNigeria Limited for diverting the short code allocated to it without prior notice to the agency.
