The association made this known in a statement jointly signed by its Chairman, Mr. Gbenga Adebayo, and Head of Operations, Mr. Gbolahan Awonuga.

It was earlier reported that the deadline handed on Nigerians by the Federal Government to link their NIN to their SIMs ended on March 31, after about eight postponements.

At the last minute, the government pushed for the linkage and on Friday, directed Nigerians to ensure they completed the verification and linkage of their NINs to their SIMs within days.

Adebayo said, “We can confirm that our members have received a formal directive from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to bar outgoing calls on subscriber lines that are not in compliance with the NIN-SIM Linkage Policy requirement.

He said that the policy required that all Subscriber Identification Modules must be linked with a NIN.

“Our members are committed to complying with the instructions and call on telecommunication subscribers who have not obtained or linked their NIN to their SIMs, to do so at any of the designated centers,” he said.

The chairman said its members remained committed to supporting the Federal Government and upholding the rights of citizens to communicate

The federal government on Friday, June 4, announced the indefinite suspension of Twitter’s operations in Nigeria. The suspension came days after the micro-blogging site deleted President Buhari’s tweet referencing the civil war.

A statement jointly signed by ALTON chairman, Engr. Gbenga Adebayo and executive secretary, Gbolahan Awonuga, and released this morning June 5, stated that the suspension was based on a directive by the telecommunications industry regulator, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

The statement titled ‘Order to Suspend Access to Twitter’, read “We, The Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) wish to confirm that our members have received formal instructions from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the industry regulator to suspend access to Twitter. ALTON has conducted a robust assessment of the request in accordance with internationally accepted principles. Based on national interest provisions in the Nigerian Communications Act, 2003, and within the licence terms under which the industry operates; our members have acted in compliance with the directives of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) the industry regulator. We remain committed to supporting the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and upholding the rights of citizens. As an industry, we endorse the position of the United Nations that the rights held by people offline must also be protected online. This includes respecting and protecting the rights of all people to communicate, to share information freely and responsibly, and to enjoy privacy and security regarding their data and their use of digital communications”