Nigerian pilgrims in Saudi Arabia have decried alleged
excessive call rates charged by the Saudi Telecommunications Company, which
issued them with free SIM cards through the National Hajj Commission of
Nigeria. The correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria in Medina reports that
many pilgrims were complaining of “crazy charges” which had limited their
ability to communicate by telephone.
All 95,000 pilgrims from Nigeria received the free SIM
cards. Alhaji Usman Abdullahi from Niger State told NAN that he loaded credit
worth 10 Riyals (about N500) on his handset but was only able to make a minute
call to Nigeria.
“I was surprised that I could not continue with the call,
even though I had a balance of four Riyals; throughout the day and in the
morning, my credit balance read zero,” he said.
Another pilgrim, Alhaji Malami Gwandu, from Kebbi State
said he had since stopped using the Saudi SIM card after discovering that the
charges were “excessively high.” Many pilgrims were also said to have stopped
using the STC cards.
An STC official in Medina, who refused to be named, said
the charges arose from dual billing.
“The pilgrim is charged by STC and the donor company also
charges the pilgrim, effectively reduing the airtime available to the affected
subscriber. We have received similar complaints from other pilgrims,” he said.
NAN recalls that an official of the Niger State Pilgrims
Welfare Board, Alhaji Mamman Mohammad, had said in August in Minna that the
free SIM cards had “no hidden charges.” NAN’s efforts to reach the NAHCON
Chairman, Alhaji Mohammed Bello, to comment on the matter failed.
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