Buhari speaks on MTN fine, says the telecommunications inaction contributed to high Boko Haram casualties

President Buhari today made his first public statement about the N780 million fine the National Communications Commission NCC, slammed on MTN over the failure to deactivate 5.1 million unregistered sim cards. Speaking at a joint press conference with visiting South African president Jacob Zuma, Buhari said the slow registration of Nigerians on the MTN network led to the death of many Nigerians during Boko Haram attacks. He said many terrorist now use unregistered lines ..

“This is the first time I will be personally as a president 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. Unfortunately, MTN was very, very slow and contributed to the casualties”he said.