Telecommunications company, MTN Nigeria Limited, has gone before a Federal High Court in Lagos to challenge the $3.9bn imposed on it by the Nigeria Communications Commission for failure to disconnect its unregistered subscribers.
The company, which filed the suit through its legal team comprising Chief Wole Olanipekun, Tanimola Molajo, A.B. Mahmoud, Dr. Gbolahan Elias, Oladipo Okpeseyi, Prof. Fabian Ajogwu and Dr. Oladapo Olanipekun, all Senior Advocates of Nigeria, is urging the court to quash the $3.9bn imposed on it.
Joined as a co-defendant with NCC is the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami (SAN).
Among other things, the plaintiff is urging the court to determine whether NCC can act pursuant to Section 70 of the NCC Act to impose a fine on it in view of the provisions of sections 1 (3), 4 and 6 of the 1999 Constitution.
It argued that by imposing a fine on it, the commission was already usurping “the exclusive legislative powers of the National Assembly, as well as the judicial powers of the courts established under the Constitution.”
The plaintiff claimed that it was not afforded its constitutional right of fair hearing before a court of competent jurisdiction and insisted that it had not been found guilty of any offence to warrant the fine of $3.9bn imposed on it by NCC.
It also contended that the sanction imposed on it by NCC was within 24 hours of its written submission on the disconnection exercise, claiming that it was impractical to have met the NCC deadline.
It contended that the deadline of seven days given to it by NCC to disconnect 5.2 million subscribers was inadequate, impracticable, unfair and contrary to the requirement that adequate notice should be given to the subscribers and all operators.
MTN accused NCC of acting as a legislator, executor, accuser, prosecutor, judge and beneficiary of the penalty imposed and that the sanction (N200,000 per SIM) imposed on it was excessive.
It stated that the fine imposed on it, till date, is the highest fine ever imposed on a telecommunications company in the world, wondering if the fine is truly commensurate to the purported breach and if this would not this frustrate the business of the company in Nigeria. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Na waaa oooo, MTN wey dey beg before and admitted they err is now challenging NCC in court. Walahi talahi if they the judge affirms that they should pay the fine na the full amount dem suppose let them pay. Are they the only ones? Why did other operators comply? This people no get sense o. Chai! Naija don suffer o...
ReplyDeleteMr anonymous. You live your life and comment on a blog without adequate information. You are equal to a blind man. If you are a business man would you fund the inordinate urge of NCC in the name of not disconnecting lines belonging to Nigerians? NCC should look elsewhere for this money and not from a company who has been fair to Nigerians though not perfect.
DeleteMTN cannot afford the huge fine. I think MTN tried to settle this issue amicably with NCC but NCC did not see reasons with MTN. Paying the fine will affect MTN operation because it's not making that kind of money in Nigeria as profit in years.
DeleteMTN is always careful of going to court on any issue, in fact MTN had paid fines to NCC on several occasions.
Let us not frustrate MTN in Nigeria
Fine should be what you are capable of playing.
Damilola, you sound more like an MTN agent. Wasn't MTN in the know of the rules? Why did they initially admit to the infraction? Why was the MTN executive reshuffled? All these are pointers to the fact of culpability on the part of MTN. Its all clear!
DeleteMTN spends alot monthly on power, security, community issues etc.
ReplyDeleteMTN cannot afford the fine. .it will take MTN Nigeria more several years to make a profit of $4 billion.
I have not heard of MTN taking anybody/any organisation to court except on this issue.
THE FINE IS JUST TOO MUCH FOR MTN NIGERIA.
If they were part of the system that put up the fines and all involved agreed on a date to terminate all ghost lines, then MTN will loose those case and it's rather unfortunate that the full fine will now be requested. MTN just lost this one. They can go out of business for all I care. Someone else will run the business with their facilities. SA always acted like Nigeria wasn't good enough. We'd learn that now at the end of this case.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, is the fine of N200,000 commensurate? How much is is the revenue being generated by a single line to MTN? Some of the lines might be loading N10,000 or lesser in a year and NCC wants MTN to pay 200k on such line. I was a staff of a telecom firm before I set up my own business, I know much about all the telecom firms in Nigeria. All the firms are affected in the pre - registration and activation of lines just to add to their subscriber base, why only MTN? It is impossible for a network to acquire 5 million subscribers in one month so also impracticable to disconnect 5 million in 7 days. You buying a pre - activated line is not ur fault bcos most of us want line to start working immediately as obtainable in UK without going through the rigour of queuing to register. NCC should ve given adequate time to for company to engage the affected subscribers before enforcing any commensurate fine. All these big men are all part of the problem bcos they don't come to register there lines and if they do, they either use fictitious details or use their drivers' details. In my own telecom firm, it takes about 4 systems to be able to disconnect a line and this can take up to 10 minutes. How can u now disconnect 5.2 million subs in 7 days? Practically impossible, business wise it's difficult when all networks are trying to gain subs. We used to set MTN as a bench mark for our operation then. Whether we like it or not, MTN is still the best company in telecom firm in Nigeria (apology to my competitor network). Sentiment apart, if u are in business and doing well, year in year out, it means u are getting it right. I also learnt MTN is one of the best 100 companies in the world! If at all MTN erred fine should be commensurate and not meant to send a company packing. Till now other telcos are still cleaning there data base without fines from NCC! Why are others left out? Question for NCC to answer.
ReplyDeleteThe issue at hand is weather Mtn err or the cannot pay the penalty? Going to court with about six SANs is a pointer that they have the money but are not ready to let it go just like that.
ReplyDelete