The Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has on Monday, July 29, 2024, stated that the ongoing subscriber line barring exercise has nothing to do with the planned national protest.

The telecommunication operators made this known in a statement jointly signed by its Chairperson, Gbenga Adebayo and its Executive Secretary, Gbolahan Awonuga.

Parts of the statement read: “The attention of the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has been drawn to some online reports linking the ongoing subscriber line barring exercise, with the planned national protest.

“There’s absolutely no connection between the two. The NIN/SIM link registration deadline has earlier been set for 31st July 2024.”

MTN barred the telephone lines of many users on Sunday, July 28, because of concerns arising from the linkage of National Identification Numbers (NIN) and mobile phone numbers.

Some of the affected persons, however, stated that the company did so as part of efforts to frustrate a planned nationwide anti-government protest scheduled to commence on Thursday.

On Sunday, ALTON said that the harmonisation exercise of the SIM registration database and National Identity Database has been ongoing for several months.

It said: “Customers who had their lines blocked recently are those whom their service providers found a mismatch between their records on both databases.

"We advise such customers to contact their service providers through communicated channels for resolution of the issue."