What does cell phone has to do with being struck by lightning bolt?

I was riding a habal habal (it is some sort of a public utility motorcycle but I believe they do not have license to operate) yesterday because I was informed that it is raining hard in our place. I do not really want to swim in the flood again so I decided to hire a habal habal to minimize my travel time. From 3 hours, my travel time would be decreased to only 40 minutes. While we are on our way to our destination, we could really see the dark sky ahead of us. It is not raining yet in our location but we can see that the rain will pour anytime. Several times, I could hear thunder and would see lightning strikes. Suddenly, the driver asked me if I have cellphone with me. At first, I fear of answering because I do not know why he has to know if I have cellphone with me. But then he requested me to kindly turn my cellphone off just to be sure that we will not be hit my lightning. For a while, I was kind of confused about what he said but did turn my phone off after. Was his statement true or has any basis?