Nigeria’s telecom sector is at risk of shutdown as workers under the aegis of Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association (PTECSSAN) have embarked on strike over sack, and poor working conditions among others.

Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, ALTON

This was as the union on Monday threatened to cripple telecommunications services nationwide.

Okonu Abdullahi, secretary-general, made this known in a statement on Monday while announcing the commencement of the strike.

Gbenga Adebayo, chairman, Association of Licensed Telecom Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), reacting to the development, said that the group is unknown to its members which include MTN, Globacom, Airtel, 9-mobile and other telcos in the country.

But Abdullahi, said that the action of his union “ has become inevitable because of the prevalent precarious working conditions our members are enduring in the sector, the refusal of the employers to recognise and respect the constitutional right of these workers to freely associate with the union, and the unjust sack of three members of the union,”

He noted that its members are over 800 working at various Nigeria telecoms company facilities, network centers and other critical telecommunications, including IHS and Huawei.

The union, among other things, is demanding the reinstatement of some of its sacked workers, recognition of the union, improved working conditions, and remittance of membership dues.

“The implications of the strike will be massive because we have told all our members not to respond to any service outage from our employers.

“The fact remains that there are outages every day, and if our engineers do not respond to those outages, subscribers in those areas will be affected,” he said.

However, Adebayo of ALTON, said that “This group is not known to us in ALTON, and the companies mentioned are not members of ALTON”,

Workers in the nation’s telecommunications industry under the aegis of the Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association (PTECSSAN) will today (Monday) begin an indefinite nationwide strike over sack, and poor working conditions among others.

Among the employees going on strike include field maintenance engineers, transmission engineers, customer service engineers, fibre engineers, and other critical staff.

There are fears that strike could disrupt telecommunications services nationwide if not resolved quickly.

PTECSSAN had given notice of the strike in a statement signed by Mr Okonu Abdullahi, its general secretary.

Abdullahi said the strike had become necessary following alleged anti-labour practices including the refusal of the employers to recognise and respect the workers’ constitutional rights to freely associate with the union.

He alleged also that three members of the union were unjustly sacked. He said: “We shall not be suspending the planned indefinite strike action until our demands, which are as follows, are met:

“Immediate reinstatement of the three unjustly sacked workers: Sotola Sunday Kolawole, Ulu Ikechukwu Christopher and Alex Franklin C.”

“Immediate recognition of the fundamental right of the employees to freely associate with the union, “ he said.

According to the general secretary, other demands include immediate recognition of the union as the negotiating body for the employees on workers welfare.

He said also that the union was demanding the immediate remittance of membership dues into its account as earlier provided among others.

“We hope that these companies will utilise the seven-day window of this notice to meet our demands and avert the indefinite strike action,” Abdullahi said

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is working closely with law enforcement agencies such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigerian Police Force to track and apprehend individuals involved in identity theft and cybercrime.

This is coming on the heels of rising insecurity and other criminalities which has cashed into the poorly regulated SIM card registration.

Identity theft has been a major challenge faced by Nigeria.

According to Nigeria Tribune, it is not uncommon for criminals to use SIM cards registered under different names to aid in their illegal activities.

For example, kidnappers often use unregistered SIM cards or ones registered under false names to demand ransom from their victims’ families.

Dr Rueben Mouka, director Public Affairs of the NCC, said the major step taken by the NCC to address identity theft is the initiation of the mandatory linking of the National Identity Number with individual’s sim cards., according to Nigeria Tribune.

Apart from this huge step, the NCC had also taken more steps to address this issue and secure individuals from criminal elements.

The NCC had initiated the mandatory registration of sim cards and even took more steps to ensure that all the sims are linked to the individual’s National Identity Number (NIN).

This move is very strategic because once you have a NIN, your data would have been in possession of the government. This will reduce identity theft.

The NCC mandated telecom operators to register all SIM cards with valid identification documents such as the National Identification Number (NIN).

This helps in linking phone numbers to individuals, reducing the chances of criminals using unregistered lines for fraudulent activities.

The NCC is also supporting the government’s drive to integrate SIM cards with the National Identity Number (NIN) database.

This ensures that every mobile phone user in Nigeria is properly identified, making it more difficult for fraudsters to impersonate others or engage in identity theft.

To ensure that Nigerians are carried along in this strategic move, the NCC is currently running an awareness campaign to educate the public on how to protect their personal data, avoid sharing sensitive information with strangers, and recognize common tactics used in identity theft schemes.

The NCC has also implemented policies that require telecom companies to protect subscriber data from unauthorized access.

These regulations aim to ensure that personal information is not leaked or misused by third parties.

The Commission is also promoting capacity building in cybersecurity through training and collaboration with local and international bodies. This helps improve the country’s ability to prevent and respond to identity theft incidents.