By Aduragbemi Omiyale
MTN offices across the country witnessed heavy human traffic on Monday after the phone lines of many subscribers on the network were barred from making calls.
Over the weekend, several customers of MTN observed that their lines were unable to make calls, sparking different speculations, including a conspiracy theory that the government asked the telecommunications firm to disrupt services ahead of the proposed August 1, 2024, protests by Nigerians.
Citizens, particularly youths, are planning to stage a demonstration to call the attention of the government to the high cost of living in the country.
The federal government under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu has been making frantic efforts to avert the protest, using every means possible to dissuade the action.
However, the youths seem to be ready for a show-down with the government, promising to go ahead with the protest despite threats by security agencies, including the Nigeria Police Force (NPC) and the military.
Over the weekend, while many were preparing for the demonstration scheduled to commence on Thursday, they could not make calls via their MTN lines.
This morning, many of the affected customers stormed MTN offices to demand an explanation as to why their phone lines were prohibited from many calls despite linking them with their National Identification Numbers (NINs).
Business Post gathered that the premises of the network provider were bombarded as early as possible by angry subscribers, with officials making efforts to calm nerves.
This newspaper gathered that most telecom firms have started to deactivate SIMs not linked to NIN as directed by the regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Modupe Gbadeyanka 
Adedapo Adesanya