N780bn Fine: Court Strikes out MTN’s Suit against FG
By Davidson Iriekpen
Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday formally struck out the suit filed by MTN Nigeria to challenge the imposition of N780 billion fine on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
The suit, THISDAY gathered, was struck out following the firm’s notice to discontinue the case.
It was further learnt that striking out the suit was to pave the way for continued settlement discussions with the federal government towards an amicable resolution of the matter in the best interests of the telecom company and Nigeria.
THISDAY gathered that the decision by the telecommunications giant formally withdraw the suit based on its opinion that it would not be proper to continue negotiation while the suit was pending in court.
The NCC had fined MTN Nigeria a record N1.04 trillion last October for failing to deactivate 5.1 million unregistered lines from its network.
Following weeks of high-level negotiation between the company and government officials, the fine was reduced to N780 billion.
Dissatisfied with the reduction, MTN dragged the Nigerian government before a Federal High Court in Lagos, seeking to stop the payment of the fine, for which the NCC gave it a December 31, 2015 deadline to pay.
But MTN through its team of lawyers; Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), Prof. Fabian Ajogwu (SAN) and seven others, through an originating summons, challenged the powers of NCC to impose such a fine on it.
The telecoms company argued that NCC being a regulator, could not assume all the functions of the state on its own, considering the fact that they made the regulation, prescribed the penalty and imposed the fine, payable to the commission and not the federal government.
The firm also alleged 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 would warrant it to pay such outrageous fine.
It contended that the sanction imposed on it by NCC was within 24 hours of its written submission on the disconnection exercise and the impractical nature of the NCC deadline.
Stating that the deadline of seven days to disconnect 5.2 million subscribers was grossly inadequate and impracticable, the telecoms company said the deadline to disconnect 5,200,000 subscribers was unfair and ran contrary to the requirement to give adequate notice to the subscribers and all operators.
It accused the regulatory agency 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, was the highest fine ever imposed on a telecommunications company in the world, wondering if the fine was truly commensurate to the purported breach and if not would to frustrate the business of the company in Nigeria.
However, last month, MTN Nigeria indicated its willingness to settle out-of-court.
As part of the negotiation, the telecommunications company had paid the sum of N50 billion out of the N780 billion fine the NCC imposed on it.
A statement issued by the telecommunications company earlier this weekend stated that the sum of N50billion was paid to the federal government “as a gesture of good faith and commitment to continued efforts towards an amicable resolution”.
MTN Nigeria’s CEO, Ferdi Moolman, while speaking on the new development, said: “This is a most encouraging development. It demonstrates a willingness and sincerity by both parties to work together towards a positive outcome. We are hopeful at this stage. Along with the authorities, it is clear that we are collectively committed to working towards a solution that is of mutual benefit to all parties. Our industry in Nigeria is an incredibly important example of the remarkable progress in ICT particularly as a much needed catalyst for socio-economic growth and development at this time.”
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