Members of the House of Representatives yesterday said the down payment of N50 billion by MTN Nigeria as a step towards out-of-court settlement of its N780 billion fine was inadequate and the telecommunications firm must be made to pay the total amount to the Nigerian government.
The hard line stance of the House of Representatives came on the heels of the disclosure by President Muhammadu Buhari shortly after a closed door meeting with South African president, Jacob Zuma that MTN Nigeria’s delay to deactivate unregistered SIM cards aided the activities of Boko Haram insurgents in the country.
The Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC, had last October imposed a N1.04 trillion fine on the telecommunications company for failing to deactivate 5.1 million unregistered SIM cards from its network, leading MTN to take the Nigeria government to court despite reducing the fine to N780 billion.
However, the company withdrew the court case it instituted against the Nigerian government and paid N50 billion into government coffers as a sign of “good faith”.
Consequently, during a meeting with NCC over the lingering saga, Chairman of the House Committee on Telecommunication, Rep Saheed Akinade-Fijabi (APC, Oyo) said the company had undermined government’s crusade against insecurity in the country.
He said NCC, as the regulator of the industry, must insist for the full payment, which would then redefine future relationship with the telecom operators for Nigeria’s interest.
“The law is there to serve as deterrent. MTN has been trying to circumvent the process and find a way of running away from the law instead of them facing the music”, he said.
Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, had told the lawmakers that the commission was not in custody of the N50 billion payment and was unaware of the account the money was paid into by the MTN.
He said NCC had only received a notification of payment from the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.
“I do not know the account where the money was paid into. The commission only received a letter from the Attorney-General of the Federation indicating that MTN had paid the amount into the federal government account”, he said.
