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Buhari made the disclosure today, March 8, 2016, during a joint press conference held after a meeting with South African President, Jacob Zuma, The Nation reports.
“This is the first time I will be personally as a president making a public comment about it. The concern of the federal government is basically on the security and not the fine imposed on MTN,” Buhari said.
“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.
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“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,” he added.
Earlier reports also had it that MTN was fined heavily because the persons who abducted former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Olu Falae in September 2015 had used unregistered MTN SIMs.
“[Falae’s] kidnappers used MTN SIM cards and MTN was unable to provide any registration data for those SIMs,” an official of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had been quoted as saying.
“The government insisted they must be sanctioned to make the right statement. In South Africa you can’t break their laws and get away with it. So why come to Nigeria and flout the laws?” the official added.
Zuma is believed to have made the trip to Nigeria partly to discuss the fine with Buhari.
