A federal high court sitting in Lagos, has restrained telecommunication operators in Nigeria from deactivating or barring any line or SIM that has not been linked with NIN by their subscribers.
Justice Lewis-Allagoa gave the ruling, in a suit filed by a legal practitioner, Barr. Olukoya Ogungbeje, who sought the relief of the court to stop the move to disconnect subscribers over NIN–SIM linkage, stating that it infringed on his fundamental rights.
Ogungbeje, in suit number FHC/L/CS/667/23, named the Federal Government of Nigeria, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, and Airtel Networks Nigeria Limited as respondents.
According to his statement of claim, the respondents are aware of the appellant/applicant’s appeal to the Court of Appeal of Nigeria, as the respondents have since been duly served with the appellant/applicant’s Notice of Appeal.
That despite the pendency of the appellant/applicant’s appeal, efforts are underway by the respondents, specifically on the 28th of February 2024, to ensure further and outright barring, deactivating, and restricting of SIM cards and phone lines of the applicant and that of Nigerian citizens.
That the appellant/applicant’s appeal to the Court of Appeal of Nigeria has a high degree of success against the respondents.
That there is a need to preserve the rest of the subject matter of the appeal pending the hearing and determination of the appellant/applicant’s appeal at the Court of Appeal of Nigeria.
Ogungbeje also claimed that as the appellant/applicant, he is desirously interested in diligently pursuing the instant appeal that has raised a novel and recondite issue substantially Jurisprudential, constituting an exceptional circumstance in which this honourable court can grant an application of this nature.
“That the court has the power and jurisdiction to grant an application of this nature in the interest of justice,” he stated.
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