Crowds besiege MTN offices over barred phone lines

Crowds have besieged the offices of MTN Nigeria in some parts of the country over barred lines.

On Sunday, many Nigerians took to social media platforms to lament that their MTN lines have been barred from making or receiving calls.

TheCable understands that telecommunication companies commenced a mass disconnection of telephone lines not linked with national identification numbers (NINs) late Saturday.

Most 9mobile subscribers have also not been able to receive or make calls since Saturday night.

The restriction comes ahead of a planned nationwide protest billed for August 1.

There are currently huge, angry crowds outside MTN offices in the federal capital territory (FCT), Oyo, Kano and Lagos.

The latest disconnection has been attributed to the July 31 deadline set by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for telcos to bar all subscribers whose NINs have not been linked to phone lines.

The latest deadline was extended from April 15, 2024, to July 31.

However, most subscribers say their lines have been blocked even though they have successfully linked their SIMs with their NINs.

On February 29, NCC said 45 million subscribers would be barred for not implementing the linkage.