• Says it violates citizens’ rights to freedom
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr Aminu Maida, to revoke, immediately, directive to network providers to bar phone lines of millions of Nigerians, who have not linked their SIM cards to their National Identification Numbers (NINs).
SERAP also urged him to restore the phone lines of the affected Nigerians, and to urgently establish a mechanism for effective consultation to provide Nigerians, who are yet to link their SIM cards to their NINs with the appropriate support and infrastructure and adequate time and opportunity to do so.
Recall that the Commission recently ordered telecommunications companies to bar phone lines of millions of citizens, including those who allegedly did not submit a good NIN or did not get a cleared or verified NIN by February 28.
In a letter at the weekend, signed by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation described the directive to bar Nigerians as an appalling violation of citizens’ rights to freedom of expression, information and privacy.
SERAP noted that no agency had the right to strip citizens of their basic constitutional rights under the guise of failing to properly link their SIM cards with their NINs or failing to do so timeously.
According to the body, the blocking of phone lines of Nigerians must only be a last resort measure, and strictly in line with the Nigerian Constitution 1999 (as amended), international human rights and due process safeguards.
“The arbitrary barring of people’s phone lines is never a proportionate measure as it imposes disastrous consequences and severely hinders the effective enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights.
“Blanket measures of barring phone lines of millions of Nigerians are inconsistent and incompatible with the Nigerian Constitution and human rights treaties to which the country is a state party.
“The arbitrary directive and the barring of the phone lines are extreme measures, which must meet the strict legal requirements of legality, necessity and proportionality,” SERAP said.
The organisation lamented that NCC had apparently failed to conduct an impact assessment of these extreme measures in order to avoid their arbitrary or excessive effects. These extreme measures, it said, went against regulatory objectives of the Nigerian Communications Act and violated Nigerians’ fundamental human rights.
