Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State has asked the Nigerian Telecommunications Commission (NCC) to restore mobile network services in ten of the 17 Local Government Areas affected by the ban.
Governor Masari had in August directed the NCC to place a mobile network ban in some local government areas in a bid to curb attacks by bandit terrorists.
But in a press statement to newsmen on Friday, Director General, Media to the State Governor, Abdu Labaran Malumfashi, disclosed that the governor had written a letter to the NCC to lift the ban.
The ten local government areas where the ban has been lifted to include: Kurfi, Dutsinma, Matazu, Musawa, Malumfashi, Dandume, Bakori, Funtua, Kafur and Danja.
Labaran however stated that the ban will remain in the following seven local governments: Faskari, Sabuwa, Batsari, Safana, Kankara, Danmusa and Jibia.
He said the Katsina government “decided to suspend the ban in the ten local governments as a result of the return to near normalcy, even as efforts have remained on the front burner to ensure maximum return of peace in every part of the state.”
Recall that the Commissioner of Police and Chairman of the Implementation and Enforcement Committee on Security Challenges in the state, CP. Sanusi Buba, had recently doubled down on the ban on sales of small ruminants such as goats and sheep in markets across the State.
