Communications

MTN shuts offices nationwide over SIM blocking outrage

Adamu Jubril

Telecoms giant, MTN, has shut all its stores and service centres across Nigeria.

“Yello customer, please be informed that our shops nationwide will be closed today, 30th July 2024,” the company said on its customer support X handle.

MTN, however, directed its customers to use their “digital channels” for support.

While it did not indicate the reason for the closure, the move came barely 24 hours after aggrieved customers vandalised MTN’s office in the Festac area of Lagos.

The aggrieved customers whose lines were disconnected for defaulting in the NIN-SIM linkage policy had stormed the office to complain over the move. But in viral videos spotted by The Telegraph, some of them were seen pulling the office’s fence.

It took the intervention of police authorities in Lagos State to restore normalcy to the area.

“This should not be the way to go! Meanwhile, the DPO Festac and his men responded immediately after they got this report,” the spokesman of the Lagos State Police Command Benjamin Hundeyin wrote on his X handle while reacting to a video post of the vandalism.

“They succeeded in restoring normalcy and are still on the ground to maintain peace.”

In several parts of the country, customers whose lines were disconnected had besieged MTN’s offices in a bid to rectify the issue.

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Millions of phone users had seen their lines blocked for failure to link their National Identify Number (NIN) with their SIMS. That generated panic among many Nigerians. Some claimed it was part of the Federal Government’s measures to halt the planned protest over hardship and bad governance.

But the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) on Monday ordered the telecommunications firms to reactivate the blocked lines.

“The consumer is our priority, therefore, considering the challenges the blockages have caused, the Commission has directed all operators to reactivate all lines that were disconnected over the weekend in view of the short time available for consumers to undertake the verification of their NINs with their SIMs,” the spokesman for the regulatory body Reuben Muoka said.

“Reactivated consumers are to note that this is for a limited period to allow them to properly link their NIN to their SIM,” the regulator added.