More than five million telephone subscribers in Nigeria were cut off when protesters attacked an exchange of India-owned Airtel, one of the west African nation's biggest telecom firms, it said Thursday.

The protesters, members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the nation's central labour movement, were protesting against the alleged casualisation of workers in Airtel and the dismissal of 3,000 employees, charges denied by the company.

"Some elements purporting to be members of NLC have shut down 15 of our showrooms across the country and also attacked our switch in Abuja, thereby cutting off over five million Nigerians from our network in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and parts of northern Nigeria," Airtel said in a statement.

"We appeal to our customers in the affected areas to please bear with us as we work with the Nigeria police to regain access to our switch and restore services."

NLC acting secretary general Owei Lakemfa told AFP that the unionists took the action against Airtel "after it sacked 3,000 workers at the end of September, and for refusing to pay some allowances it agreed with the workers."

"Since they said they wanted to shut down some parts of their operations, which they said led to the the sack, all we did was to help them quicken the process," Lakemfa said.

Airtel in the statement denied either hiring casual workers or dismissing the 3,000 employees as reported in some Nigerian newspapers.

"Airtel does not employ casual workers in any part of our organization, Airtel did not sack any employee," it said.

"The employees being referred to work for Tech Mahindra and Spanco, who provide us call centre services," it said.

India-based Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa.

The company boasts 233 million customers worldwide.


http://news.yahoo.com/nigerian-protesters-cut-off-5-mln-phone-lines-130455041.html;_ylt=AnfkV9hJ1mK0R90OEZ_uD4C96Q8F;_ylu=X3oDMTNqYmthMG5mBGNjb2RlA2N0LmMEcGtnAzA1MTViYWI5LTAyODktMzRhMS05NjZhLWI1NmM3YzZjN2U1MwRwb3MDNgRzZWMDbW9zdF9wb3B1bGFyBHZlcgNmYWJkZjA5MC1mMDFiLTExZTAtYWJmYy0zODU0OTBiNWQ5N2Q-;_ylg=X3oDMTFxaTJhMjZtBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdAN3b3JsZHxhZnJpY2EEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnM-;_ylv=3

mmm

Funny oooo, Niger boys sef

hhhhhh

gggg

jjjjjj

hhhhh

lll

If they r not negotiating, wish 1 part already did,then who is the real BokoHaram?

Na u won chop the 25million , then Bokoharm will hunt uu ooo guy

This is exactly OBJ'S objective , to confuse them and make them not come together, so it will be easier crushing them and its working, if u criticize OBJ , ure on ur own, go read the Book WAR- confuse your enemy, make their motives different.

hhhhhhh

160 gb HDD
2gb Memory
Bluetooth
Webcam
5 in 1 Card reader
Intel processor
Colour is black
HP CQ61 Model
call ayowale on 08059308778

hhh

IF

Awuf dey run bele

e no easy oo at last i understand German

hhh

hhhhhhhhhhhhh

hjjj

hhhh

ALL MICROSOFT EXAMS = 5,000
ALL COMPTIA EXAMS = 10,000
ALL ORACLE EXAMS = 10,000
SUN JAVA = 10,000
TELL THE WHOLE WORLD THIS ARE THE CHEAPEST IN THE WORLD
WRITE EXAMS AT OAK COMPUTERS www.oakcomputers.net
call gloria 08036739317