Telecommunications operator, MTN Nigeria, has thrown thousands of its customers out of communication nationwide after the telco barred their lines.
Many of the customers found that their lines went dead on Sunday.
‘There was no prior notice. No warning. My line just showed that I could only make emergency calls”, said Sanmi Adeyemi in Ogun State.
Another subscriber, Mrs Funmi Owoeye, said she also lost network on her phone on Sunday.
The telco however said the subscribers were disconnected for failure to link their SIMs with their NIN.
Many of the subscribers affected, however, said they had gone through the process of linking their SIMs with their NIN at least once.
“I linked NIN with my SIM many years ago and got the confirmation from the network some days later that it was successful. I saved the confirmation on my phone to this day. Any time I needed to know my NIN, I used the same line to obtain it through a shortcode. So, I don’t understand why I should be barred for not linking my SIM to NIN linkage again. How many times are we supposed to do it?
“Some months ago, maybe three or four months ago, I got a message saying something about my NIN. It was a generic message, not particularly directed at me. I just thought it was sent to every subscriber including those who had done it because I knew I had done it. Nonetheless, I quickly looked for the confirmation message I got after it was done some years ago and the moment I saw it, I just relaxed. So it was a shock to be thrown out of network like this,” he lamented.
He said it was particularly painful for him because it was his only line.
“My phone has the capacity to take two SIMs but I don’t have two lines. That is the only line I have. I’ve used it since 2001 when GSM came. That is the only line anyone who knows me can reach me on. I don’t understand why I have to go through this torment. I cannot quantify the loss from this outage. Worst of all, the crowd at the MTN offices are just impossible to navigate. Must they disconnect everyone at once? It does not make sense. Why not do it in batches so you can have a manageable crowd of customers in your offices.”
Mrs Funmi Owoeye, a long-standing MTN subscriber also lamented about the situation. She discovered her line was not active on Sunday and waited till this morning to get it fixed at the MTN office at FESTAC, but the crowd there was too massive.
Toyin Abiola who was at the 23 Road, FESTAC office of MTN said people got there as early as 6 am.
“I have been there since 7 am. At 11:30 or thereabouts, a police officer with the name tag, Gboyega Balogun came out to inform us that the server had crashed and we should go home and return on Tuesday. Just imagine. So we will not work again because we have MTN line?” she lamented.
Reports from other parts of Nigeria indicated that the operator carried out the action nationwide.
There are lots of videos online showing subscriber expressing their anger at MTN offices after their lines were barred.
It was learnt that some subscribers of other networks had also been barred in the last few days.
A Lagos-based lawyer, Ebunolu Adegboruwa, in a statement alleged that the action was being taken by the operators to frustrate the proposed EndBadGovernance protests.
The protests are being planned for August 1.
The President of the Association of Licensed Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Gbenga Adebayo, dismissed the allegations as the funniest thing he had ever heard.
In an interview with the Vanguard, he said the allegations were unfounded.
