The Chief Operating Officer of Zoodlabs (SL) Limited, David Tamba Kpakima and some sub-contractors working for the company were arrested on Monday, 8th November, 2021 and taken to the CID Headquarters in Freetown for allegedly violating Section 70 (1) of the Telecommunications Act, 2006 as amended.
Section 70 (1) states, “Subject to Section 20, any person who establishes, maintains or operates a public telecommunications network or service in contravention of this Act commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not less than five times and not exceeding ten times the relevant licence fee at the time of conviction or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years or to both such fine and imprisonment”.
CID personnel confirmed last night that they are investigating some people for what they referred to as “unauthorized deployment of telecommunications services”.
A spokesman for NATCOM (National Telecommunications Commission) confirmed yesterday that during their routine compliance check on Monday, 8th November, 2021 together with the Police, they arrested some people allegedly working for Zoodlabs “For illegally deploying metro fibre, after the company had been warned by the Commission not to engage in any illegal deployment of telecommunications services across the country”.
A senior investigator at CID Headquarters in Freetown confirmed last night that they were still investigating the matter. He confirmed that statements have been obtained from some of the suspects.
A spokesman for Zoodlabs said, “We are cooperating with Police investigations”. He refused to elaborate.
Investigations continue.
