President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has blamed MTN for the death of over 10,000 Nigerians. According to Buhari, MTN Nigeria fuelled the Islamist-led insurgency in Nigeria by failing to disconnect unregistered sim cards, according to President Muhammadu Buhari.
The President said the 10,000 Nigerians were killed due to the delay in the registration of sim cards by MTN.
Buhari said this while addressing a joint press conference with the visiting Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa. The action of the operator, he said, was the reason why the Nigeria National Communication (NCC) slammed a fine on the operator.
Buari said: “I will personally as a president be making a public comment about it. The concern of the federal government is basically on the security and not the fine imposed on MTN. You know how the unregistered GSM are being used by terrorists. And between 2009 and today, at least 10,000 Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram. That was why NCC asked MTN, Glo and the rest of them to register GSM.”
He said MTN and other mobile phone operators in Nigeria were ordered to disconnect unregistered SIMs by mid-2015 on security grounds but MTN missed the deadline. MTN has since paid out $250 million towards the penalty. MTN’s troubles in Nigeria has seen its profits falls by over 50 percent.
