The Guardian. Police Walkie Talkies rendered useleess.

NCC claims due process in police spectrum allocation. A NEW twist has been added to the lingering case involving the sale of the 450MHz spectrum band said to belong to the Nigeria Police Force. The band was allegedly sold by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to a private company, Open Skys Limited. The frequency band 450MHz occupied by the police since 2009 was said to have been sold to Open Skys Ltd. without any competitive bid process as provided by the NCC Act 2003, nor consideration for national security. But the NCC said at the weekend that due process was followed in the allocation and that the process was initiated long before the existing leadership of the commission. The Guardian learnt that the police surveillance system has been left in dire straits, as all walkie-talkies recently acquired by the force have been rendered mere toys in as they are actually not in use due to the displacement of the police from the frequency band. An industry source and an expert on spectrum allocation, who spoke to The Guardian quietly corroborated the claim, saying that the 450MHZ frequency was valued at over $50million, but was sold for less than $6million by the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr Eugene Juwah, on September 26, 2011, to Open Skys Ltd, a company said to be owned mainly by Mr. Emeka Offor and his associates. NigComSat Ltd is said to own 25 per cent of the company’s shares. According to the source, “nothing can be far from the truth. There is actually fraud in the sale of the spectrum. As a result of the illegal sale, I can tell you that the police surveillance system has been left in dire straits, as all walkie-talkies recently acquired by the force have been rendered useless, since the spectrum to which they are supposed to be connected has been illegally hijacked by the NCC.”