By Sylvia Kodilichukwu, Enugu
Enugu State House of Assembly members have decided to summon telecom operators in the state -MTN, Globacom, Airtel, and 9mobile – accusing the latter of robbing subscribers through dropped calls.
The obviously angry lawmakers also want the firms to explain how they will reimburse their customers for losing precious money over such failed calls.
The move has elicited rejoicing among residents of the state who have suffered untold ordeals, some even losing life-changing opportunities, hefty sums of money, due to incomplete calls arising from the poor networks of the telecoms operators.
The lawmakers’ bid followed a motion moved on the floor of the House at a plenary on Tuesday, April 29, by the member representing Igbo-Eze South state constituency, Hon. Harrison Ogara, over what he considered arbitrary fleecing of telecom subscribers who are forced to pay for services not rendered.
Ogara, while moving the motion, lamented that over 219 million Nigerians, including Enugu State indigenes, subscribe to the services of the telecom operators, lamenting, however, that they suffer undue interference in their calls yet pay for services not rendered.
He therefore prayed the House to invite the telecom operators in Enugu State to appear before the hallowed chambers to explain why they should not be mandated to refund all subscribers from the state that lost their funds through dropped calls, adding that they should present accurate figure of all the network subscribers in the state with detailed data of all those who suffered loss of funds as a result of such failed calls.
He also demanded that the operators should appear with all the evidence to show that they have regularized their tax payments with the State Government.
The lawmaker urged that the state’s Accountant General, Auditor General, Attorney General and the House Committee on Information, Communication and Innovation set up a joint committee to look into the activities of all the telecom network providers so as to know how much the people of the state have lost as a result of the dropped calls.
Ogara requested that the outcome of the inquiry be made public where all those who lost money due to the inefficiencies of the network providers be refunded accordingly.
“Mr. Speaker, Distinguished colleagues, I rise to draw your attention to the current epileptic services of the telecoms services providers in Enugu State which have resulted to huge loss of funds by our citizens.
“Not minding being a late entrant in the Global System for Mobile (GSM) market, Nigeria has obviously out ppaced many countries across when we take into consideration the market size and telephone usage.
“It is quite absurd and preposterous that even with the rapid growth of the sector and its consequential growth in consumer size, users of telecom services in Enugu State have continued to groan under the scorching pressure of abysmal performance in services,” he lamented.
Members who contributed to the motion backed Hon. Ogara, saying the activities of the telecom operators run short of expectations even as they rob unsuspecting subscribers with high tariff and dropped call syndrome.
Contributing, the member representing Nsukka West, Hon. Malachy Onyechi likened the telecoms operators to another firm, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), which, he stated, hand consumers exorbitant estimated bills without rendering commensurate services.
On his part, while supporting the motion, Hon. Clifford One, representing Igbo-Eze North 2, said that the activities of telecoms operators were like the banking services where a customer is debited yet transaction does not go through.
Earlier, the House of Assembly passed into law the Enugu State Land Use Charge Second Amendment, House Bill 6, 2025 presented by Hon. Iloabuchi Aniagu, member representing Nkanu West constituency.
To give room for accelerated passage of the bill, the Assembly suspended Order 14, Rule 102 subsection 1 of the House Standing Order.
