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Podcast host to sue MTN, other telcos over alleged disappearance of 150GB data
Kel Armstrong Amobi, host of the KaaTruths Podcast, said he vowed to take MTN Nigeria and other telecommunications operators to court over an alleged disappearance of more than 150GB of his mobile data.
Mr Amobi, popularly known as KAA, disclosed this in a post on X on Saturday, accusing MTN of failing to provide a satisfactory explanation of the incident, despite holding two telephone conversations with the company’s customer service representatives.
Mr Amobi said he and other parties will meet MTN and other telecommunications operators at the Federal High Court in Abuja on 18 November over the mysterious data disappearance.
According to him, about three weeks ago, he complained to MTN that more than 150GB vanished from his line, including the depletion of 20GB from his data balance within eight minutes, even though his mobile data was switched off at the time.
“Within minutes of making that post, @MTNNG replied publicly. They said they had investigated and that I actually used the data. They said this without even knowing which number was affected,” Mr Amobi stated.
The podcast host said MTN subsequently contacted him privately through X and requested to have a telephone conversation with him.
“On the call, a customer service agent apologised when I asked why they had lied publicly about an investigation that never happened. Then we got to the real issue. She admitted she had no answers. She said she would send the case to their technical team and call me back, he stated.
Mr Amobi said the representative later called back with the outcome of the investigation, claiming that he had used 30GB on Google services and another 19GB on YouTube on the day in question.
Mr Amobi, however, disputed the claim, particularly the assertion that he consumed the 19GB on YouTube while attending a meeting at Transcorp Hilton Abuja.
The customer care officer could not give a convincing response to what happened to the remaining data, he noted.
“But let’s take it even further, according to my phone records. The iPhone 17 Pro Max eSIM has a 5,088 mAh battery capacity, and at 95 per cent battery health, it would take about 25-30 per cent to stream a 4K Video on YouTube for three hours. Still, on that day, my battery usage records showed that YouTube used only 2% of Battery and spent about 20 minutes of screen time,” he remarked.
He also claimed that his iPhone’s records showed total YouTube data consumption of 23.8GB over the 10 months he had used the device, making MTN’s insistence that he used 19GB on YouTube in one day questionable.
According to him, MTN’s explanation did not account for the remaining data or establish how the alleged consumption occurred while his mobile data was switched off.
The podcast host said he would not blame the customer service representative, describing her as an employee carrying out her duties, but insisted that the company’s management should account for its public claims and the unresolved complaint.
“My last words to her were: tell your people not to bother sending you again. Bring the explanation and the results of your so-called investigation to court. We meet MTN and the other telcos at the Federal High Court, Abuja, on the 18th of this month,” he said.
As of the time of filing this report, Mr Amobi has not responded to PREMIUM TIMES with the details of the legal steps he plans to take or other circumstances surrounding his experience with the mobile network operator. MTN is also yet to respond to this newspaper’s request for comment.
Similar encounters
Mr Amobi’s post triggered similar reactions from other social media users with similar past experiences with Nigerian telecommunicationsservice providers.
Akinrinlola Olamide, a software engineer, said she has had comparable incidents repeatedly, alleging that MTN’s data usage meter is no longer functioning on the telco’s app.
“This is ridiculous; it has been happening to mine too, and they keep doing it because I’m not talking; their data usage meter is no longer working on their app,” Mr Olamide said.
Also sharing his experience, an X user, Big Sam @_samueld_, expressed his displeasure with the disappearance of his 1.28 terabyte data subscriptions, adding that he reached out to the telco for a remedy to the situation but got no response.
“I wish I could go to court too. My 1.28TB data disappeared overnight! I have sent a detailed email to MTN and tagged necessary regulatory bodies; nothing has been done. More than a month has passed,” he said.
The complaints persist despite regulatory measures introduced by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to shield telecommunications subscribers from unexplained data depletion, billing errors, and poor network services.
In January 2021, the NCC announced that it had instituted a forensic audit to investigate complaints of unexplained data depletion and wrongful deductions from subscribers’ accounts, with the possibility of compensating affected consumers.
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However, complaints persisted, prompting the regulator in May 2024 to direct mobile network operators to audit their billing systems, following renewed reports of unexplained data depletion.
In July 2024, the commission also introduced the Nigerian Communications (Quality of Service) Regulations, which established minimum service-quality standards for telecommunications operators. It provided for the measurement, reporting and monitoring of network performance.
When complaints about rapid data depletion and inaccurate billing persisted, the NCC, in August 2025, directed telecommunications operators to engage independent audit firms to scrutinise their billing systems.
The regulator has also introduced additional consumer-protection measures, including a refund framework for failed airtime and data transactions in January 2026 and a compensation framework for subscribers affected by poor network services in March 2026.
That notwithstanding, complaints of unexplained data depletion remain commonplace, raising questions about the efficacy of existing regulatory measures and the transparency of operators’ billing systems.
The extent to which subscribers can accurately verify their data consumption also remains uncertain.
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The executive secretary of UN Climate Change, Simon Stiell, told the ministers at COP31 that climate finance must be redesigned to lift developing countries out of a cycle of debt and disaster, adding that meeting a headline figure will not do it.
“Meeting a financial target does not always meet countries’ needs. To do that, we need to look at how finance is delivered,” Mr Stiell said on Friday at the opening of a high-level ministerial dialogue on climate finance in Antalya, Turkey.
Countries agreed at COP29 that developed nations would lead in providing $300 billion a year by 2035, as part of a wider effort to raise $1.3 trillion annually from all sources.
Mr Stiell said the roadmap for reaching those sums “must become reality”, but that the terms of the money mattered as much as the amount.
“Many developing countries are trapped in a downward loop of debt, disaster, and devastating capital costs,” he said. “The threat of floods, fires, storms and droughts hangs over them, pushing up the price of borrowing even before disaster strikes.”
He stated that the terms of finance should reflect each country’s debt position.
“Private finance, loans and guarantees are essential to achieving our collective goals. But grant-based and highly concessional finance will remain critical, particularly for Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States and other very vulnerable economies,” he said.
According to him, broader action on debt is also needed to prevent countries from being forced to choose between repayments and resilience.
International climate finance for developing countries reached about $137 billion in 2024, and almost 70 per cent of it came in the form of loans, according to a UN Women flagship report released on Tuesday in Antalya.
Countries in sub-Saharan Africa paid more than twice as much in external debt service between 2021 and 2023 as they received in climate finance, according to an analysis published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
The analysis found that interest payments consumed more than 10 per cent of government revenue in 27 African countries in 2024.
The chair of the African Group of Negotiators, Nana Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, has said that a transition could not be called just if poorer countries have to “mortgage their futures” to pay for it.
The group lost a bid on Monday for a separate agenda item on tripling adaptation finance. It now wants the target prioritised in the summit’s cover decision.
Nigeria is not on the UN’s list of least developed countries, which places it among the states the UN climate chief expects to rely more on loans, guarantees and private capital.
It needs about $337 billion between 2026 and 2035 to implement its climate commitments, according to the National Council on Climate Change.
Omotenioye Majekodunmi, the agency’s director-general, said more than 80 per cent of that will have to come from private investment, commercial debt, and international carbon finance.
About $2.5 billion a year went to climate action in Nigeria in 2021 and 2022, counting domestic and international sources, according to the Climate Policy Initiative’s tracking.
The dialogue was the last in a series that began in 2013, and its conclusions will go to COP32 in Ethiopia next year, Mr Stiell said.
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