By Dipo Olowookere
A former military Governor of Kaduna State, Mr Abubakar Umar, says he has informed his lawyers to file a suit against MTN over unsolicited messages and deductions from his call credits.
Mr Umar said he has complained severally to the network provider and was assured that it will not happen again, but was surprised that nothing was done as promised.
The former Governor also noted that all attempts to reach the telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) have failed.
Speaking on Saturday, Mr Umar said it was unfortunate that this practice has continued despite complaints. He noted that it was not about the money being deducted from his account, but the act he described as ‘fraudulent’, stressing it was wrong for network providers to deduct money from subscribers without their consent.
He forwarded two of the latest unsolicited messages he received Saturday: one susbscribed him to a callertune with a charge of N50, with an option to opt out; the other subscribed him to a package ‘Laugh Out Loud’ also with a fee.
The latest messages he received read thus: “Yello, you have downloaded the Callertune by TK SWAG for N50.00. This tune expires on 2016-12-09. To delete the tune, send del0733736
“Dear Customer, you have successfully subscribed to Laugh Out Loud and N50.00 deducted from your account. Your service will be renewed on 2016-11-18. To cancel, text STOP LOL to 55006. Enjoy!”
Mr Umar said deducting such N50 from millions of subscribers implies the network is stealing billions of Naira from subscribers on a daily basis.
He said he was suing MTN on behalf of 70 million subscribers and he believes the subscribers will be his witnesses in court.
Adedapo Adesanya