Former presidential aide Bashir Ahmed has petitioned the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) over what he described as a questionable 58GB data consumption recorded on his MTN line in a single day.
Ahmed, in a series of posts on X, said MTN Nigeria provided him with a breakdown of his data usage for August 11, 2026, after he complained that 56.8GB of his data had allegedly been consumed within 24 hours.
According to the breakdown shared by Ahmed, the network recorded about 58GB of data usage between midnight and 11:59pm on August 11.
The largest categories were listed as iCloud Storage, 19.68GB; Apple iCloud, 15GB; Encrypted App Traffic, 10GB; and Google Services, 7GB.
Other recorded usage included Instagram, 905.74MB; Snapchat, 800.85MB; Apple Software Upgrade, 732.80MB; X (formerly Twitter), 609.07MB; App Store, 370.09MB; and Facebook, 312.89MB.
Ahmed questioned how almost 45GB could have been attributed to iCloud-related and encrypted traffic within a single day, saying he was not satisfied with MTN’s explanation.
“How exactly did 58GB disappear in a single day, particularly with nearly 45GB hilariously attributed to iCloud, Apple iCloud, and Encrypted App Traffic, which I don’t even know what that means?” he wrote.
He said he had initially not intended to involve the consumer protection regulator but decided to formally report the matter after receiving MTN’s usage breakdown.
Ahmed urged the FCCPC and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to scrutinise the records and ensure telecom subscribers were charged only for data they actually consumed.
“I am formally reporting MTN to you because I wasn’t convinced by their explanation of how they swallowed my 58GB in a single day,” he said.
The post triggered debate among X users, with some suggesting that automatic cloud backup and synchronisation between devices could account for significant data consumption.
One user, identified as Golden Boy, suggested that Ahmed may have enabled automatic backup and synchronisation between his phone and iCloud, which could cause media, contacts and documents to be uploaded.
Ahmed, however, questioned the explanation, asking what had been added to his phone within the previous 24 hours that could account for such a large upload.
Another user warned Ahmed against publicly discussing technical details of the dispute, while Ahmed maintained that his complaint was not solely about his own experience.
He said he was raising the issue because other Nigerians had also complained about unexplained or unusually high data consumption.
In a subsequent post, Ahmed shared a screenshot showing a remaining MTN data balance of 642.61GB, arguing that he had sufficient data and was not making the complaint because he had exhausted his subscription.
The controversy comes amid recurring complaints by Nigerian telecom subscribers over unexpected data depletion, with consumers often demanding clearer explanations of how their data allowances are consumed.
MTN has yet to publicly respond to Ahmed’s latest petition to the FCCPC or the specific breakdown he shared.
