The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has denied the claims in some quarters that some of its officials were bribed in the negotiation of the N330 billion fine the agency slammed on GSM network provider, MTN Nigeria.

Abdullahi Maikano, Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau of the NCC refuted the claims in Effurun, Uvwien council area, Delta state, where the telecoms regulator held its 22nd Consumer Town Hall Meeting.

He was represented by his deputy, Dr. Femi Atoyebi on the occasion.

According to Maikano, “No NCC official was bribed. I repeat, nobody bribed any NCC official on that MTN fine issue, quote me. NCC is a very responsible organization under quality leadership which cascades down to the least of staff.

“No NCC staff will ever take bribe. Challenge me if you see one. That allegation is not true. You read in the papers what MTN has done, they have paid some amount and they are to pay the rest by installments. So, that case is actually settled.”

Maikano said the commission was looking at the cases of consumer complaints of unsolicited SMS and poor network among other concerns against service providers,

“It’s not true that NCC has not been doing anything about complaints. The town hall meetings are not jamborees. Everything going on here is being recorded and we will play it to the public. We do a comprehensive report and make recommendations on every outing to management.

“Some of the policies you see being rolled out by NCC emanate from reports from meetings like these. The consumers are the target beneficiaries of all our activities which make them enjoy primary focus in ensuring that they get quality of service, value for money and timely and fair redress of complaints”, he added.‎

At the Effurun Town were various network providers, religious groups, companies and several individual consumers who harped on inconveniences suffered over unsolicited messages, crazy deductions and poor networks among the commonest complaints the NCC promised to resolve with time.