FG threatens to sanction telecom companies over customer harassment - report

According to media reports, the Federal Government has decried the way Nigerians, especially women, are being treated by telecom companies when they try to comply with the directive of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on the SIM registration, with the FG threatening to sanction said telecom companies.

According to Leadership.ng, a statement by the special assistant to the Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, Mr. Victor Oluwadamilare, said that this has become necessary, following the exceedingly large amount of complaints from telecom subscribers across the country.

“The minister’s office had been inundated with complaints from Nigerians, particularly women in veil, over the way they were being treated, sometimes humiliated, by the workers of telecommunications companies nationwide.

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"In some of the complaints, women in pudah were required to remove their veils in public despite requests by such women that a place should be provided for them away from public glare and for only female officials to attend to them. All entreaties by these women failed, rather they were allegedly accused of being Boko Haram agents and refused registration after several altercations ensued in some of the registration centres,” Oluwadamilare said, according to the Leadership.ng report.

The report further reveals that the minister urged the telecom companies to accord maximum respect to Nigerians, especially women, by respecting their feminine nature as well as their religious disposition.