MINISTER URGES FIRMS TO RESPECT SUBSCRIBERS RELIGIOUS RIGHTS

Minister of Communications, Barr. Adebayo Shittu, has appealed to telecoms operators to show some level of respect to Nigerians, trying to comply with the NCC directive on registration of SIMs in use.
Shittu, who threatened to deal with erring companies, lamented that veiled women are being treated shabbily at SIM registration centres.
A statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Victor Oluwadamilare, said there are barage of compliants by telecoms subscribers across the country, saying there were abuses of subscribers at some centers.
“The Minister’s office had been inundated with complaints from Nigerians, particularly women in veil that they were being maltreated and sometimes humiliated, by the workers of telecommunications companies nationwide.
“Women in pudah dresses were required to remove their veil in public despite the requests by such women that a place be provided out of public glare for only female officials to attend to them, some were allegedly accused of being Boko Haram agents and refused registration after several altercations that ensued in some of the registration centres,” the statement said.
Shittu, who frowned at the development noted that the Nigerian Constitution has guaranteed the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion of all citizens and that such right can never be violated by executive or administrative lawlessness, high-handedness and insensitivity.
The Minister also emphasised that Nigerians deserve unreserved apologies from the concerned telecoms companies, saying “it is inhuman and unacceptable to treat Nigerians in a cruel manner, as it is a universal maxim that the right of even minorities are respected worldwide”.