Nigeria, Sept. 22 -- Residents of Sokoto metropolis on Wednesday expressed mixed reactions over the shutdown of telecommunications services in the state.

The Sokoto State government announced on Monday that services had been cut in 14 of the 23 local government areas of the state as part of the efforts to check banditry.

This reporter was in Dange Shuni local government, one of the highlighted areas on Monday, around 12 noon when she noticed the network outage.

Returning to Sokoto metropolis at 5 p.m., she found the same situation as residents complained about the disruptions it caused to their business.

However, at about 10 p.m., network reception was eventually restored in the city centre.

Bilikisu Suleiman, who sells soft drinks i...