Ijeoma Agudosi/Hyacinth Chinweuba
President Mohammadu Buhari has said that 10,000 lives of Nigerians were lost due to the delay in the registration of sim cards by MTN.
Buhari who spoke in a joint press conference with the visiting South African president, Mr. Jacob Zuma at the presidential villa, Abuja was giving reason why the Nigeria National Communication NCC, fined the network provider.
He said that this would be his first time to speak on the issue as the president of Nigeria.
He said that the concern of Nigeria was basically on the security of lives and property of the people in the midst of terrorism.
He also hinted that the court action by MTN slowed the intervention of the government as it could not have interfered on the matter before the court.
He said: “This is the first time I will personally as a president be making a public comment about it. The concern of the federal government is basically on the security and not the fine imposed on MTN. You know how the unregistered GSM are being used by terrorists.
“And between 2009 and today, at least 10,000 Nigerians were killed by Boko Haram. That was why NCC asked MTN, Glo and the rest of them to register GSM.
Unfortunately, MTN was very, very slow and contributed to the casualties”.