The suspects were arrested with over 1,000 SIM cards.

The FCT Police Command has apprehended six men who allegedly sell registered SIM cards to kidnappers and other criminals in the territory.

FCT Police Commissioner Benneth Igweh, who said this on Thursday while parading the suspects in Abuja, said they were arrested by a team of detectives from the State Intelligence Department (SID).

He said Mohammed Baba, an assistant commissioner of police, led the team.

He gave the names of the suspects as Suleiman Musa, John Njoku, Nasiru Suleiman, Nafiu Tijani, John Jock and Ndubuisi Okeh.

Mr Igweh said about 1,100 cards, three registration machines and other equipment were recovered from them.

He said the suspects sold each SIM card to the criminals for between N3,000 and N5,000 per card.

The commissioner said the criminals operated with the identities of other people in order not to be easily tracked.

"It may interest you to know that four different numbers could be registered under a single NIN, hence these criminals employ street SIM card vendors to get the details of unsuspecting residents who buy SIM cards and register at the same time," Mr Igweh said.