by Nurat Uthman
Minister of Communication, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, has denied directing telecom companies in the country to tamper with networks as the nationwide protests began on Thursday.
This comes after Nigerians using major telecom providers took to social media to voice their frustrations over unusually slow internet connection.
The disruptions led to speculations that the Federal Government had instructed telecom companies to hamper network services to thwart the protests.
Reacting to this speculation in an interview on Channels Television, Bosun Tijani denied the allegations, stating that there wasn’t any instruction from the Federal Government in that regard.
He suggested that the slow internet speeds might be due to the increased online traffic, as many people stayed home due to the protest which started August 1.
“There’s no instruction to tamper with (phone) networks.
You need to understand that when you have a significant number of people not at work, they are online, and so you would expect the traffic to be extremely high. I am not saying that is the cause, as I have not done any technical assessment”, he said.
