Mobile phone networks had been shut down within the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara, residents stated on Monday, amid reviews that authorities had ordered a blackout whereas they had been terrorizing the world from an armed gang of kidnappers.
Two residents of Zamfara, reached by telephone after touring to neighboring Sokoto state, stated their cellular community had stopped working over the weekend.
A doc that seems to be a letter from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to community supplier Globecom, instructing the closure of providers in Zamfara from 3 September, was circulating on social media.
Reuters couldn’t verify the authenticity of the letter. NCC officers didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark, and Reuters couldn’t instantly attain a Globecom spokesperson.
The letter stated the telecom blackout was being ordered “to enable the concerned security agencies(s) to carry out necessary activities towards addressing the security challenge in the state”.
Zamfara’s police spokesperson and state authorities officers weren’t being known as.
A Nigerian Air Force supply requested to touch upon media reviews {that a} army operation towards felony gangs was underway, stated: “We are fiercely and decisively clearing these elements. This is a total operation. “
Zamfara has been one of many worst-hit states in a wave of mass kidnappings of scholars from faculties in north-western Nigeria. Armed gangs working from camps in distant areas of scrubland are taking folks for ransom.
In the most recent reported incident, over 70 college students had been kidnapped from a secondary college in Kaya village final week.
One of the Zamfara residents contacted by Reuters, lecturer Abubakar Abdullahi Alhassan, stated he had heard the cellular community had stopped working since a army operation was underway.
“The Nigerian Air Force and Army were successful in clearing some of the bandits’ camps. They killed many people and recovered arms and ammunition, while many others were arrested,” he stated.
Military spokesman within the capital Abuja was not responding to requests for remark.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
