SERAP urges NCC to reconsider stance on block phone lines

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged Dr. Aminu Maida, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) “to immediately revoke the apparently unlawful directive to network providers to bar the phone lines of millions of Nigerians who have linked their SIM cards to their National Identification Numbers (NINs).”

SERAP also urged him to “restore the phone lines of these Nigerians, and to urgently establish a mechanism for effective consultation to provide Nigerians who are yet to link their SIM cards to their NINs with the appropriate support and infrastructure and adequate time and opportunity to do so.

The Commission had recently ordered telecommunications companies to bar the phone lines of millions of citizens including those who allegedly “did not submit a good NIN or didn’t get a cleared or verified NIN by February 28.”

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In the letter dated 9 March 2024 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “The directive to the network providers to bar Nigerians who have linked their SIM cards to their NINs is an appalling violation of citizens’ rights to freedom of expression, information and privacy.”

SERAP said, “No agency has the right to strip the citizens of their basic constitutional rights under the guise of failing to properly link their SIM cards with their NINs or failing to do so timeously.”

According to SERAP, “The blocking of phone lines of Nigerians must only be a last resort measure, and strictly in line with the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], international human rights and due process safeguards.

The letter read in part: “We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within 7 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall consider appropriate legal actions to compel the NCC to comply with our request in the public interest.”

“The arbitrary directive and the barring of the phone lines are extreme measures which must meet the strict legal requirements of legality, necessity and proportionality.

“The NCC has also apparently failed to conduct an impact assessment of these extreme measures in order to avoid their arbitrary or excessive effects. These extreme measures go against the regulatory objectives of the Nigerian Communications Act and violate Nigerians’ fundamental human rights.

“Any restriction on the rights to freedom of expression, information and privacy must meet the three-part test under international human rights law, namely that it is provided for by law, it serves to protect a legitimate interest recognised under international law and it is necessary to protect that interest.