What looks like the last rain of the year has caused serious havoc to Abuja residents as a Saturday unexpected heavy downpour shut down both MTN and Globacom networks in the nation’s capital.
When residents had thought that the rainy season had come to an end and they had begun to tidy up their environments, clearing their drainages, fixing damaged roads and grading the bad spots on their roads, the rains returned again on Saturday, a development that appeared strange to residents of the nation’s capital.
Not only that the rain was heavy and destructive, it brought fort ice, hitting the roofs and triggering dangerous lightning that affected many residents’ electric appliances.
But the worst hit were two telecommunications giants, MTN and Globacom.
Both networks were affected by the lightning as at 5pm on Saturday. Afripost reports that as at the time of filing this report, there was no network signal on both networks, an indication of total networks shutdown.
Lamenting the situation, a resident of Ushafa in Bwari Area Council identified simply as John Ibechi said the rain was evil, but the worst evils were both MTN and Glo that could not return the network since after the rain.
“Yes, I agree that it was an evil rain, but what is more evil than the two major network providers in the country to have denied us access to communication network for hours? Just because it rained, those of us here in Ushafa have been locked out completely for several hours.”
Another resident, Mr Andrew who teaches in one of the secondary schools said it is their stock in trade.
“I knew we weren’t going to have network on our phones today since it has rained. This is what they do everytime. Common rain could stop network from working and you would begin to imagine how rain could shut down networks for hours.
“Even when AEDC takes the light, these two networks have no alternative power source to support their masts and we could be out of networks for days here in Ushafa. ”
Similarly, Mrs Catherine, a woman leader in Ushafa said they had drawn the attention of officials of the communication networks to the development on several occasions, but it seems they won’t be bothered.
She said, “we are tired, completely tired. We have been complaining but nothing has been done. At least, they are the ones losing money. I now have a backup network right now as it is clear we can’t rely on those two networks.”
Efforts to reach both communications networks failed even as officials had not returned the network upon going to press.