The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has dragged MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd, the nation’s leading mobile operator, to an Abuja High Court for its refusal to pay the N780 billion fine slammed on it for not disconnecting 5.1 million pre-registered lines.
The suit followed the failure of MTN Nigeria to pay the reduced fine by the stipulated deadline of December 31, 2015.
MTN had, in early December, filed a suit at a Lagos High Court to prevent NCC from enforcing the fine payment until the court’s judgment. Subsequently, MTN missed the New Year’s Eve deadline to pay it.
The initial fine of $5.2 billion (N1.04 trillion) was reduced by 25 per cent to $3.9 billion (N780bn) on December 4, 2015, after the telecom firm had pleaded for leniency, with a payment deadline slated for December 31, but MTN failed to make the payment by the close of work on December 31.
Following the MTN suit initiated on December 17 challenging the power of the regulator to impose the fine and a counter-suit filed by the NCC asking the court to quash the telecom firm’s prayer, the two parties yesterday came to terms: the final decision in the case would be taken by the court.
Mr Tony Ojobo, Director, Public Affairs, NCC, who foreign media reports had misquoted as saying that the deadline subsists, said since the two parties had resorted to the courts, the outcome of the two cases would now determine the matter.
“There are two court cases on the matter, the one filed by MTN and NCC’s counter-suit. So, while the deadline has elapsed on December 31, 2015, we should also be aware of the fact that we need to wait for the court ruling,” Ojobo said.
Also, Victor Oluwadamilare, the spokesman for Minister of Communication Adebayo Shittu, had said that the Nigerian government would not do anything when the December 31 deadline expired.
On its part, MTN has said that because the matter is now before the courts, previous judicial decisions in Nigeria show that neither it nor the Nigerian government can take further action until a ruling has been made.
According to the telecom’s Head, Public Relations and Protocol, Mr Funso Aina, the rest of the case should be left to court to determine, even as MTN continues to engage with the Nigerian authorities.
Following MTN’s failure to meet the December 31, 2015 deadline given to it by NCC to pay the $3.9 billion fine imposed on it, attention has now shifted to the courts.
Already, MTN has engaged the services of seven senior advocates of Nigeria (SANs), led by Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), to challenge the sanction before the Federal High Court in Lagos.
According to MTN, the NCC, being a regulator, cannot assume all the functions of the state on its own, considering the fact that it made the regulation, prescribed the penalty and imposed the fine, payable to the commission and not to the federal government.
The telecoms company also claimed that it was not afforded its constitutional right of fair hearing before a court of competent jurisdiction and more importantly, it had not been found guilty of any offence that will warrant it to pay such outrageous fine.
However, in a motion on notice filed through its lawyers, Ahmed Raji (SAN) and Mahmud Magaji (SAN), NCC has urged the court to dismiss or decline to hear the suit for want of jurisdiction or send it to its Abuja division.
The commission argued that the suit was wrongly filed in Lagos, noting that the subject of the dispute took place in Abuja, while the two respondents in the suit, NCC and the attorney-general of the federation, are also based in Abuja.
Also a Lagos lawyer, Tope Alabi, has asked the court to dismiss the suit, arguing that the N1.04trillion fine imposed on MTN is in order and that the telecom firm has no reasonable case against the NCC.
Alabi, who seeking to be joined in the suit as an interested party, also submitted that granting MTN’s reliefs will result in “people breaking one law and hiding under another law to escape liability.”
The case is yet to be heard by the court.