President Muhammadu Buhari lost the use of his mobile number acquired from
telecommunications company, MTN Nigeria, Monday, when his line was
deactivated, for failing to register the line fully.
Sources at the Villa Told THE BRIEF that DSS agents went into a frenzy,
when the President’s mobile phone carrying an MTN SIM card, went dead.
MTN was immediately contacted on the issue, to which the DSS was told that
the line was among those deregistered by the company for incomplete
registration.
Subscribers on the network who were yet to fully register their lines
before the end of January, were pummeled with more than 10 notifications
daily, asking them to complete the process, or lose all functions on the
network.
A source from the MTN office in Abuja confirmed the incident to THEBRIEF,
saying the act was expected, as not only the President’s line was
deactivated, on the day.
The source told our correspondent that the deactivation process was
automatic, and did not respect the subscriber’s political or social
status.
The DSS, had to hurriedly bring MTN staffers to the Villa, to reregister
Buhari’s line.
Calls placed to Presidential Spokesman Femi Adesina, to ascertain if the
action of MTN was as a result of the N1.04trn fine the Federal Government
placed on the company for failing to register some of its subscribers,
and selling out pre-registered SIM Cards, proved abortive, as calls were
not responded to, and text messages were not replied.