Telecommunications giant MTN has hired a former United States Attorney General Eric Holder to help challenge the $3.9 billion fine imposed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for failing to disconnect unregistered users, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
Citing people familiar with the situation, the newspaper said Holder, the immediate past U.S. top law officer, pleaded with Nigerian officials last month on behalf of the telecoms company.
Africa’s largest mobile phone company was handed a $5.2billion penalty last October, prompting weeks of lobbying that led to a 25 per cent reduction to $3.9 billion.
MTN, however, was still not prepared to pay the fine and launched a court challenge in December, saying the Nigerian telecoms regulator had no legal grounds to order the penalty.
A Federal High Court judge sitting in Lagos last month gave MTN until March 18 to try to reach a settlement over the fine, which equates to more than twice MTN’s annual average capital spending over the past five years.
MTN spokesperson Chris Maroleng was not immediately available to comment.
Holder, who led the US Justice Department from 2009 to2015, was one of President Barack Obama’s longest-serving cabinet members. He returned to the law firm Covington & Burling, where he was previously a partner from 2001 to 2009. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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MTN is bittering more than they can shew .. US lawyer can not use US law to fight for MTN in nigeria ..their days are numbered..
ReplyDeleteWhat an error! It will be difficult to negotiate a "deal" with him. Instead a local SAN who knows his ways should have been engaged
ReplyDeleteMTN did the right thing. Going to court is not going to war. It is for the court to peacefully tell every party its limits. If NCC collects the money they will share it among themselves leaving thousands of people to loose their jobs
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