Nigeria’s emergency number, promoted by Alwan Hassan, a spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, failed to connect when it was tested live on television on Tuesday night.
Hassan spoke about the availability of Nigeria’s 112
emergency number during an appearance on ‘Politics Today’, a programme on
Channels Television, when Seun Okinbaloye, the anchor, challenged him to
demonstrate its effectiveness.
Hassan asked Okinbaloye to dial 112 and put the call on
speaker mode, boasting that the number could be used to request emergency
assistance for health, security and other distress situations.
“Seun, let me tell you something that you don’t know: take
your phone and call 112. Nobody knows about this; we used to hear it in
America: 911,” he said.
“Call 112. Now put it on speaker, and they’ll ask you what
your emergency is, either health, security, distress call, whatever. Call 112.
Welcome to Nigeria. Call 112 and put it on speaker. Thanks to APC government.”
When Okinbaloye asked if the emergency number was an
achievement, Hassan answered in the affirmative and urged him to make the call.
Hassan explained that calls would be routed to emergency
response centres in the caller’s location, where operators would ask about the
nature of the emergency and dispatch the appropriate responders.
The spokesperson said the system could connect callers
requiring ambulance services with relevant agencies, while the police would be
contacted in cases of robbery and other security emergencies.
Hassan also said the federal government is working to
introduce a dashboard that would enable emergency response centres to identify
callers’ locations without requiring them to provide their addresses.
However, when Okinbaloye dialled 112 several times during
the live broadcast, the call failed to connect.
“Not ringing just yet,” the anchor said as he initiated the
call.
Hassan insisted that the number was functional, saying, “It
will ring. It will ring, and they will pick.”
After further attempts, Okinbaloye told Hassan: “This number
is not working.”
Hassan maintained that the line was operational but
suggested that a network problem at the television station might be responsible
for the failed calls.
“It is working even without network,” he said.
Okinbaloye, however, said he had dialled other numbers from
the same location, and they connected, questioning why the emergency line was
not working.
“Because you are APC?” the anchor asked.
“Not because I’m APC,” Hassan replied.
Okinbaloye asked if the failed test may give viewers the
impression that Hassan was fibbing after the campaign spokesperson had touted
it as an achievement of the APC administration.
Hassan denied lying and again attributed the failed
connection to a possible network glitch.
Towards the end of the exchange, Okinbaloye asked viewers to
test the number and send him messages on X to report whether it connected.
The anchor subsequently said he had received several
messages from viewers reporting that the number was not working.
Alwan Hassan, a member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council, spoke about the availability of Nigeria’s 112 emergency number, which was immediately put to the test. #PoliticsToday https://t.co/xvO6h6oAhc
— Channels Television (@channelstv) November 10, 2026
In July 2026, the National Economic Council (NEC), chaired
by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, approved the adoption of 112 as Nigeria’s
emergency number across all levels of government and relevant agencies.
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