MTN faces backlash over SIM blockage in Oyo
In protest at the abrupt blocking of their Subscriber Identification Modules, thousands of MTN customers swarmed the company's Idi-Ape office in Ibadan, the state capital of Oyo State, on Monday.
When the telecom provider abruptly disabled consumers' phone numbers because of NIN-SIM linking problems, the situation worsened.
Online videos that are trending depict mobs of irate consumers sending MTN employees home in protest of the outage.
Using the @Oyoaffairs handle, Oyo Affairs tweeted a picture of thousands of people stuck at the Idi-Ape office.
Protesting is never a solution if you are worried about your SIM block, said Ogbeni Adefila (@OgbeniHadephila). As a group, come together and file a class action lawsuit against the service providers. Get right and sue them.
OluwaLoba (@iamtobzz), another MTN SIM subscriber, bemoaned, "This Idi-Ape MTN office is choked o."
Some MTN users who had registered and associated their SIMs with their NIN were still experiencing service outages, according to Razqee (@showband007).
He wrote, "I'm blocking my friend again because he has his MTN SIM registered and has NIN verified written on his MTN app."
A user going by the name of Jamal Kolade criticised the demonstrators in the meantime, claiming that the service provider had warned about the SIM restrictions for unlinked National Identity Numbers.
What do you mean by previous warning? was the tweet he sent out. Do you know when folks have been advised to connect their SIM to their NIN?
Similarly, "My MTN line was blocked on Saturday," reported a person going by the username Abcone @WORLDWIDEFINAN5. The service provider has been sending notices in the interim; if you were lacking the necessary information, you ought to have conducted your own research. At this critical juncture in our nation's history, this is both unneeded and unacceptable.