The causes of MTN’s service interruption in the state have been clarified by the Kogi State Utility Infrastructure Management and Compliance Agency.
Over the past two weeks, the telecom service has been disrupted, and in the past week, it has completely shut down.
Speaking to reporters in Lokoja on Friday, Dr. Taofeeq Isah, the Director General of KUIMCA, blamed the shutdown on the telecom company’s inability to completely adhere to the operating guidelines outlined in the state’s official gazette.
“I reviewed their files after taking office in August of last year and found that they had not complied completely with the regulations governing their activities in the state. They grumbled about being overcharged for the region of the state that their optic fiber covered when I called them for a talk. I accompanied them on a four-day verification exercise to evaluate their claim, and we discovered that they were actually traversing more ground than they had stated.
MTN declined our request that they go and make the required payment. For this reason, we obtained a court order to close their facilities.
The DG called on the citizens of the state to be patient with them since their interests were being protected.
He said that since MTN is not the only network operating in the state, citizens as well as the security agencies to consider switching to other networks, considering their importance in securing the lives and property of Citizen,s which should not be compromised under any circumstances.
Also speaking at the press conference, the Executive Chairman of the Kogi Inland Revenue Service, Salihu Enehe, said that MTN has arrogated to itself so much power that they have been refusing to respond to so many entities, asking for compliance on various terms of operation in the state.
The Chairman, who was represented by the Director, MDA, Hasana Salawu, said that MTN has been indulging in violation of various rules, not only the optic fibre right of way across the state, but also has violated every rule guiding their operations in the state.
MTN claims to have 48 optic fibres when the audit revealed they have 199 fibres laid under the ground in the state. We have called for reconciliation meetings severally but they claimed to be ready up till now.
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