House of Reps finally orders NCC to stop network providers from sending customers unwanted texts

folarin okunola

August 13, 2015 4:25 PM

The House cited the increasing cases of “unsolicited caller tunes” and text messages to subscribers by service providers as one of the activities that the NCC must halt immediately.

Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives

Report reveal that the House of Representatives yesterday asked the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to put an end to certain “unfair practices” by mobile telecommunication service providers in the country.

At a meeting in Abuja, the lawmakers observed that the caller tunes and promotional text messages were not only unsolicited but some also carried charges.

They noted that such charges were deducted from subscribers airtime usually without their knowledge.

“In the recent past, mobile telephone service providers in Nigeria started charging their subscribers for caller tunes unsolicited in contravention of the NCC Act, 2003,” Mr. Ali Madaki, who moved a motion on the issue, told the House.READ: Security agencies may soon have the power to tap your calls, monitor your Internet activity

Madaki, who is an All Progressives Congress member from Kano State, told the house that he once took his phone to a service provider’s office in Kano to have an unsolicited caller tune cancelled and his money returned. However Madaki revealed that another unsolicited “embarrassing” caller tune was played on his phone a few days later despite the cancellation.

“Mr. Speaker, they played a caller tune, ‘My Sweetie, my lover',” the house member is quoted as saying according to Nigeria Communications Week.

“It is immoral to do such a thing by sending such tunes to subscribers who did not subscribe to them,” Madaki added.

House Majority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, described such acts as “harassment and invasion of privacy.”

He reminded the House that apart from the powers conferred on the NCC by the enabling Act, there were also laws that protected the privacy of Nigerians.

Gbajabiamila cited Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), noting that when the privacy of individuals was violated, they could seek the protection under the law.

“If you invade my telephone with unsolicited information, there should be a penalty for it,” he added.

Members of the house passed the resolution in a unanimous vote at the session, which was presided over by Mr. Yakubu Dogara. Speaker of the House of Representatives.

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