Every day for the thief and one day for the owner because the jig is up for Airtel. A justice of the FCT High Court ruled today that the telco should pay N5 million to one of its customers, Mr Emmanuel Anene, for continually disturbing him with unsolicited text messages.
I’m sure we can all relate to this. You are there doing important stuff, plotting world domination and then your network provider decides to interrupt you with a lovely jingle. The annoying part is that they seem to revel in this blatant invasion of privacy. I mean just look at this tweet.
😘😘Kisses B. You cool? https://t.co/JiQ1O5ZckA
— Airtel Nigeria (@AirtelNigeria) August 2, 2016
I have a boyfriend, he calls and texts me at least twice a day, he doesn't ask Where I am or who I'm with. His name is Airtel 😌😌
— president general (@the_zukks) August 2, 2016
News Agency of Nigeria reports that Airtel Nigeria did not respond to the plaintiff’s suit (probably busy replying tweets). The court, therefore, awarded the sum of N5 million to the plaintiff instead of the N200 million he had claimed as damages.
We had earlier thought our problems with these telcos were over with the introduction of the 2442 ‘Do Not Disturb’ code but we now know better. Even with our superior knowledge, the Communications Minister still swears by it.
I am glad to inform you, that a ‘do not disturb’ code, has now been put in place to stop unsolicited SMS and other similar messages.
— Dr Adebayo Shittu (@HMAdebayoShittu) October 29, 2016
I did notice that the court only ruled that Airtel Nigeria should pay damages but not that they should stop the messages. Is it possible that Mr Emmanuel will still keep getting unsolicited messages? We wait and see.
