You Can't Sue Us Outside Abuja - NCC Tells MTN 

 
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has challenged the competence of the suit filed against it by the by MTN Nigeria, saying the Federal High Court in Lagos lacks jurisdiction to hear the case.

In a motion on notice filed through its counsels, Ahmed Raji (SAN) and Mahmud Magaji (SAN) NCC queried the competence of the suit, insisting that MTN failed to ensure proper service of court documents on it.

It would be recalled that the NCC had fined MTN N1.04 trillion for allegedly breaching statutory and regulatory directives. In return MTN filed a suit against NCC before the Federal High Court in Lagos seeking to void NCC's decision to penalize it for failing to among others, register about 5.2 million subscribers within a given deadline.

According to MTN, the NCC lacks powers to impose the fine. It argues that the contention that NCC, being a regulator, cannot 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.

Govt Insists On Payment of U.S.$3.9 Billion, MTN

 

Mr Adebayo Shittu, minister of Communications, said that the federal government would neither be cowed nor threatened by MTN's court action against the N1.4trn (about $5.2 billion) fine which was later reduced to N780 billion ($3.9 billion), insisting that the telecommunications company risks another fine if it fails to pay on deadline.

Shittu stated this in reaction to the suit instituted by the telecom operator at a Lagos High Court.

Mr. Victor Oluwadamilare, special assistant on Media to the minister however, admitted that MTN had the right to seek court's interpretation if it feels unsatisfied with the action of the regulator but made it clear that nothing would stop the government from imposing additional fine on the operator, at the expiration of the deadline.