Hamisu Muhammad
18 June 2008
Abuja — Vandals have descended heavily on cables providing telecommunications service to the presidential villa, the headquarters of defence services and the state security services.
Other customers affected by the vandalization are the federal secretariat and National Assem-bly complex.
The cables were cut at a point near the headquarters building of the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commis-sion (RMAFC, Abuja and the National Mosque.
The vandalization according to a statement from the Nige-rian Telecommunications Limi-ted (NITEL) signed by its Depu-ty General Manager, Corporate Communications, Bala I. Abdulkadir paralysed telecom-munications services to all the affected areas.
"This is worrisome development to NITEL because of the sensitive nature of the duties and responsibilities of the affected customers. The development also seems to be a trend because, although there are cables belonging to some other operators in the affected man-holes, only cables belonging to NITEL were cut".
NITEL said about eleven different cables belonging to its network were cut at the two sites.
Speaking on phone to Daily Trust Abdulkadir said mobile network services are not affected but that due to the importance of the affected locations, the company is doing all its best to restore the service for the affected areas.
He said " NITEL has started repair works to restore services to the affected customers. urging that any information available should be forwarded to security agencies.
Three weeks ago, some suspected vandals also operate at nearby spot where they cut down fibre optic cables that connect greater parts of Abuja's telecommu-nications networks belonging to the four major GSM service providers.
The Executive Commissioner in-charge of Standard and Regulations, NCC, Dr Bashir Gwandu who led a team of the operators and journalists to the site, said it is an act that is capable of distorting the entire telecommunication network in the city and some parts of the country.
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