Just days before a planned nationwide protest against economic hardship, Nigerian telecom operators faced intense backlash from the public after enforcing the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) mandate to disconnect numbers not properly linked to the National Identity Number (NIN).
Major carriers like MTN Nigeria, Airtel, Glo, and 9Mobile disconnected thousands of subscribers for non-compliance with the NIN-SIM linkage directive.
This led to widespread outrage, with protesters storming telecom offices across the country.
The protesters accused the telcos of attempting to sabotage the protest scheduled for August 1-10, 2024, by deliberately restricting their network services.
The situation escalated when prominent Nigerian lawyer Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa accused the telecom companies of deliberately impeding the protest by blocking subscribers’ lines. He suggested that the telcos’ actions were aimed at limiting the reach of their customers to frustrate the protest.
In response, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecom Operators in Nigeria (ALTON), dismissed these claims as unfounded. Adebayo argued that since telecom operators serve both supporters and opponents of the protest, it would be counterproductive for them to intentionally obstruct it.
Despite these assurances, protests against the network disconnections continued, with demonstrators causing damage to telecom facilities in cities such as Lagos, Abuja, Warri, Oshogbo, and others.
In Festac Town, Lagos, and Oshogbo, Osun State, protesters vandalized telecom offices and disrupted traffic, expressing their frustration over the disconnections.
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