Although not new to a daily throng of visitors, the Asaba office of MTN, last Saturday had hundreds of persons wearing long faces over their sudden inability to make calls.
Those affected sat for several hours looking like fish out of water, having found out on Saturday morning that they could not make or receive calls, neither could they surf the Internet as they usually did. They also could not use WhatsApp, Facebook or receive bank alerts, so for them, the world had suddenly come to an end. One of the subscribers said “it is painful because I did not receive any warning.”
A source expressed surprise that MTN had such number of active lines that were yet to be registered or linked to NIN, wondering why it suddenly became serious about it.
While all it required to unbar the lines was a quick registration before linking to customers’ NIN, a major MTN store operating behind Konwea Plaza, Asaba failed to attend to customers, ostensibly due to lack of technical capacity. It therefore became a referral centre, as workers told anxious subscribers that “only head office could handle the problem.”
But during a visit to the Airtel office on Nnebisi Road, Asaba, the exercise was seamless, although it was difficult to activate new lines.
As for MTN, a crowd had gathered at the Asaba head office, so getting a seat became a luxury. Many stood forlorn pondering their fate. To make matters worse for the MTN subscribers, those who came around noon were turned back with the excuse that those on the waiting list were enough to keep the staff working after 2pm, which is the closing time on Saturdays.
That notwithstanding, some persons were seen trying to negotiate with the guards in order to gain entry.
