A mild drama played out at an MTN
registration outlet in Abuja when a certain
Muslim woman refused to remove her ‘hijab’
to complete her SIM registration process.
DAILY POST reports that following the fine
imposed on MTN by the Nigerian
Communications Commission, NCC, for having
about 5 million unregistered SIMs in its
network, it started another round of SIM cards
registration in the country to meet up with the
January deadline.
At the Garki II, Lagos street MTN outlet, a
Yoruba-speaking Muslim woman covered with
hijab, refused security search at the entrance
to the registration centre.
DAILY POST gathered that the Muslim woman
said she will not unveil herself before she will
gain access into an office ‘in her own
country.’
A police officer, who was acting on
instructions to check every customer before
they gained access into the office, told DAILY
POST that, “This woman is a suspect.
“How can you come to a public place dressed
like this and you expect to gain access into
an office that is not yours?
“No one knows what she has under her veil.
She may be carrying a bomb, who knows?
“This is the reason why we insisted on
searching her and she claimed she is a
Minister’s wife,” the officer told DAILY POST.
Meanwhile, the purported Minister’s wife
gained access into the office through the
intervention of one of the MTN staff who
identified herself simply as Zainab.
Zainab, the front desk Manager, said the
unidentified woman asked to be privately
attended to as she cannot unveil herself in
public.
According to her, “The woman asked me to
register her in a private room because she
cannot remove her veil. I told her it is not in
any way possible and after pleading, I asked
her, “what if I want to take your photo during
the registration?”
Zainab said the supposed Minister’s wife also
declined and asked for the registration to be
done without her snap shot. She said the
woman later asked that she sought
permission from her husband before she can
unveil her face for the registration process to
be completed.
The woman, having caused a stir in the outlet
with eyebrows raised, disorganized queues
with her insistence and left mouths wagging.
She told DAILY POST that she will make sure
she deals with ‘this so-called police officer.’
The Hajiya, (as she was referred to), who
didn’t want her name mentioned, said, “Can
you imagine the embarrassment, an ordinary
police woman stopping me from entering an
office in my own country?
“I will show you,” she added.
Speaking further, she said, “I want to do this
registration thing and they say I must open
my veil, which I cannot do because it is
against my belief.
“I managed to gain access into the office after
several embarrassments from these police
guard. When I got in, the MTN officials said I
needed to open up my face for a snap shot to
complete my registration process which I had
not even started.
“I just came out to take permission from my
husband, whether or not I should unveil
myself, before this police woman said if I go
out, I won’t be allowed to go back into the
office unless I am thoroughly searched,” she
said.
When asked if she was actually a wife of one
of the Nigerian Ministers, she said, “I’m sure
you must have heard people say that here.
People, who know me, have said it, so I
cannot talk about that right now,” the
professed minister’s wife quipped.
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