Mr. Gbolahan Awonuga, the Executive Secretary, Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria during an interview with journalists on Tuesday, announced that Mobile network operators have concluded plans to seek compensation from the Federal Government for losses incurred from terrorist attacks on their installations.
The telecommunication operators which include MTN, Globacom, Airtel, Etisalat, and CDMA operators have concluded plans to seek compensation from the Federal Government.
“We are still getting information from the operators. We will send letters to the Ministry of Communications Technology, Nigerian Communications Commission as well as Nigerian Trade and Investment Commission. I don’t think anybody will expect operators to bear the loss alone” he said.
In recent times, Islamist sect, Boko Haram, has blown up telephone masts and offices of phone companies, saying they helped the security forces to arrest members of the group.
The most recent attack occurred on Saturday, when two suicide car bombers, attacked the offices of Airtel and MTN in Kano, killing themselves but no other victims.
The National Emergency Management Agency confirmed the bombings and said it was not aware of any civilian casualties.
Also, telecoms services were on Wednesday, September 16, disrupted in Borno, Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe and Kano states, following the bombing of base stations by terrorists.
As a result, the quality of service in the affected states took a downturn as interconnection of telecoms infrastructure became severely limited.
Experts, who described the attacks as injurious to telecoms growth in the country, said they were suggestive of willful damage by corrupt elements.