Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, chairman of Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) has reiterated the consequences of the threat by NCAA on Tuesday to demolish over 7,000 telecommunications masts erected by Global System for Mobile Communications providers across the country, saying that will simply throw the whole nation into telecom blackout because as an industry, they are not going to rebuild any of the sites.

Describing it as another of the moves by government and its agencies to impose unwarranted taxes on the sector, which was already overburdened with multiple taxation, Adebayo warned that any site brought down illegally and without due consultation would not be rebuilt and the consequences would be felt by all.

“Telecommunications remains infrastructure of infrastructures because other sectors including aviation, banking, health, transport rely on information and communication technology (ICT) to drive their operations. It follows logically that when attacked, the economy and the people would feel the impact negatively, as blackout would become imminent. And against that, I will say there will be criminal prosecution and there will certainly be security crisis,” said Adebayo.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Vanguard Economy Forum on Telecoms, Adebayo added that “Our association went to see the DG of NCAA about three months ago and that was to discuss the issue of Aviation Height Clearance (AHC) and we concluded on a committee to look into it. It sounds very strange, but also very interesting, because it speaks to the fact that our sector has become the subject of attack from agencies. So, to NCAA and the general public, I will say if they are going to dismantle those sites, good luck to them, but as an industry, we are not going to rebuild any of these sites. What NCAA would end up doing would be to throw the nation into telecom blackout.”

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