₦airaland Forum

As Nigerian security agencies intensifies operations to comply with President Muhammadu Buhari’s order to eradicate insurgency within three months, mobile telecommunications operating companies and their subscribers have started to bear the brunt with the deactivation of 37.79 million mobile lines resulting in a daily loss of N251.94 million revenues.

Several attacks carried out by militants fighting the Nigerian government and its people in the north east of the country and Abuja, the federal capital territory, were coordinated by the terrorist group, Boko Haram using mobile telephone lines.

Starting from last Wednesday, MTN, Airtel, Glo and Etisalat, the four leading mobile operators in the country, took their subscribers by surprise by deactivating all lines with unregistered or improperly registered mobile subscriber data on their networks.

This has resulted in a deluge of crowds at the various service centres of the operators round the country.

Head, Enforcement and Monitoring, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Mr Idehen Efosa, told LEADERSHIP that out of the 37.79 million lines, Etisalat had 19.46 million improperly registered lines, followed by MTN with 18.6 million lines. Airtel has 7.4 million lines while Glo has 2.33 million lines only.

The order to deactivate the lines followed a meeting between the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), Department of State Service (DSS), the network operators and the NCC, the nation’s telecom regulator, to examine the security threats posed by unregistered subscriber identification modules (SIMs).

Thereafter, the NCC handed down a seven-day ultimatum starting from August 4, 2015, to GSM operators to deactivate unregistered SIMs with invalidity status.

The NCC also asked the operators to notify the affected subscribers before deactivation of their SIM cards so that they could go for a re-registration or regularisation of their SIM record before they are re-connected for full two-way service reception. However, the mobile operators did not fully implement the deactivation order until mid-last week.

The decision by the mobile operators to suspend activities on the lines followed the imposition of N120.4 million fines for failure to fully comply with the NCC directive to deactivate pre-registered and defective customer SIM cards.

An NCC team had carried out a four-day check on the operators’ databases after the seven-day order expired, and it discovered partial implementation of the directive: MTN only removed 1.6 million lines and put them on ‘receive only’ mode; Airtel only removed 2.3 million SIMs with facial images problem; Globacom also removed only 3.5 million from the network while Etisalat barred 3.3 million SIMs also.

Director, public affairs, NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, said after the telecom regulator observed the lackadaisical attitude of the mobile operators to fully comply with its directive, it had no other choice than to fine MTN, which controls over 62 million subscribers on its network, with N102.2 million. Globacom was slammed with N7.4 million; Etisalat N7 million and Airtel N3.8 million.

He said the fines to be paid by each of the operators were listed in letters dated August 26 and 28, 2015, and addressed specifically to them. He explained that in continuation of its monitoring activities, the department placed voice calls to 402 MTN subscribers from among the list of numbers submitted to the operator for deactivation.

Similar exercises were carried out on other operators. In one of the letters entitled, “Re: Monitoring of Status Compliance with Stakeholders Resolution of August 4, 2015, on Deactivation of Incomplete and Improperly Registered SIM Cards – Notice of Sanction,” NCC observed that the monitoring exercise had revealed that the operators were still harbouring activated pre-registered and defective SIMs on their networks.

Following the outcry of mobile subscribers over the suspension of their mobile lines, Airtel said it was extending its operation hours in all its showrooms and customer touch points across the country by two hours every day of the week, Monday to Sunday, to accommodate customers who are desirous of updating their records in line with the Know Your Customer (KYC) registration exercise.

Airtel said following the directive from NCC to ensure that all customers on its network, who were yet to fully complete their SIM registration requirements, were barred from using their lines, “we wish to inform you that the barring of non-compliant lines has commenced on the Airtel network.

“If you have been barred or received a message that you will be barred as a result of this process, we appeal to you to kindly reactivate your line or update your records accordingly to continue enjoying our quality services. Please, visit any of our Airtel Express Shops or KYC registration centres across the country to update your registration details.”

Airtel said customers who had duly completed the SIM registration requirements as stipulated by the NCC should be assured that their lines would continue to remain functional and services would not be interrupted.

MTN corporate services executive, Mr Akinwale Goodluck, on his part, apologised to MTN subscribers whose lines were rendered inactive due to the ongoing SIM validation exercise and who had crowded their service outlets across the country, saying the company was doing everything possible to ameliorate the conditions at the service centres.

Goodluck said: “We wish to apologise to all our customers who are experiencing difficulty with the ongoing SIM registration/revalidation exercise. We appeal for calm as customers visit our various outlets. We are committed to ensuring that all affected subscribers complete the process as directed by NCC. It is for this reason that we have increased the number of staff handling SIM registration/validation across all our channels.

“We have also mandated all our registration outlets to remain open till 8pm every day until further notice.”

He noted that the decision to deactivate all lines with invalid or incomplete subscriber registration details was in compliance with the NCC directive.

“It is to enable us provide maximum support to government in achieving the national interest objectives of the exercise,” he said.

The president, National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), Mr Deolu Ogunbanjo, expressed support for NCC’s deactivation order as it bordered on national security.

He, however, wished that the regulator had given subscribers up to 30 days’ time frame to complete the registration instead of the shock treatment they got.



Insurgency exposed flaws in Nigerian Army – COAS

The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, yesterday said that the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency had exposed inherent flaws existing in the Nigerian Army, even as he reiterated his commitment to right all the wrongs with the country’s number one armed force.

The army chief made this remark while delivering a keynote address at the opening of the ongoing 2015 Regimental Sergeant Majors’ (RSM) Convention taking place in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital

Buratai noted that the counter-insurgency operations had tested the capacity of Nigeria Army such that “it has exposed some major flaws in our discipline, regimentation and professionalism as well as the general conduct of officers and men of our Army.”

He declared that his vision as the number one soldier was “to have a professionally responsive Nigeria Army in the discharge of its constitutional roles.”

Buratai said he was committed to achieving the restoration of the core values of soldiering which are “discipline, regimentation and professionalism,” adding that these values would position the army effectively to defend the territorial integrity of Nigeria within the confines of constitutional guidelines.

He said the RSMs, who are the most important link between officers and soldiers of the Nigerian Army, as well as custodians of unit regimentation, must be well packaged in discipline, knowledge and motivation to enable him achieve his vision for the country’s army.

The COAS said it was in the light of the above premise that the theme of this year’s RSM’s convention was tagged “Enhancing the Capacity of RSM’s to be Professionally Responsive in the Discharge of their Roles”.

He thereby urged the 300 participating RSMs to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the convention to brainstorm and come out with better ways that would ensure troops remain focused in the “just cause” of ridding Nigeria of the scourge of terrorism and insurgency.

Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, who was the guest of honour at the opening ceremony of the convention, commended the army for bringing the 2015 RSMs convention to Borno State even as he eulogized the core values of the RSM in the army.

“The RSM does not only come as a person with commanding presence but also the livewire of the soldiering profession,” he noted.

sameer1212:
Good one.

Luggi007:
If thats the pains we have to go thru on our part to end the boko haram bas.tard, then let it be.

Chylo:
This is fantastic news I must say. Now Boko Haram will have to go to MTN office and take their picture if they want to make call. Excellent move by Mr President, the security team and the NCC. The real purpose of the SIM registration is now being put to use. I love it.

ECOTERRORS:
how can you a BH member? BH will steal peoples phone and use it for their operation.

Chylo:
This is fantastic news I must say. Now Boko Haram will have to go to MTN office and take their picture if they want to make call. Excellent move by Mr President, the security team and the NCC. The real purpose of the SIM registration is now being put to use. I love it.

donholy28:
Thank God say all these deactivating stuff no touch my line...because na proper subscription dey am

UrennaNkoli:
So wetin you want make we do ?

Xbabangida:
But just as one poster said above, this move affected my line too.

HitlerGaddafi:
You too ? so you be my sister sef? I don go mtn office na so so tori dem begin dey tell me. Me I go just slap person chook am knife for there.
But I gave them an ultimatun, by friday if my line is not re-activated, I'll be coming there with soldiers. They sef go know sey they collect visitor that day.

Xbabangida:
And you think you are making sense from the bolded?

Edunwa302:
Please re they still deactivating more lines ?
I got several of this message but my line is still working till now

donholy28:
I wan make u follow them begin thank their God

UrennaNkoli:
Maybe thats why we've been seeing this for some while now.
https://slotmagazine.ng/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2015_9largeimg03_Sep_2015_223346957.jpg

Edunwa302:
i don dey plan thanx givin service on sunday y u wan crash my hope na.
Go mtn office u ll understand better