Following in the fashion of the House of Representatives, the Senate Thursday summoned the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to appear before its Committee on Communications to explain why a N1.04trillion fine imposed on MTN Nigeria was reduced to N330 billion. MTN had already paid N50 billion as a show of good faith before intensifying its plea and negotiation with the Nigerian government.
The negotiation led to a further slash of the fine to N330 billion which payment was staggered over a period of a few years. But this gesture has since drawn the wrath of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, and even the Governors’ Forum all of whom are insisting that MTN pays the full fine.
However, the intrusion of the National Assembly and the Governors’ Forum had been interpreted as politicizing a purely regulatory matter which is within the purview of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Minister of Communication.
The Senate decision Thursday followed a Point of Order raised by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Telecoms, Sen. Gilbert Nnaji (PDP, Enugu) during plenary.
Sen. Nnaji had recalled that in October 2015, in line with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Registration of Telephone Subscribers Regulation, 2011, the regulator imposed a fine of N1.04 trillion on MTN for the failure of the network provider to deactivate 5.1 million unregistered subscribers.
He said that Section 19 and 20 of the said regulation did not empower the commission or any other entity or government official to reduce any fine already imposed.
An angry Senator Nnaji said:“This fine was unilaterally reduced to N780 billion without the input of the ministry of communication and the NCC.
“This constitutes a flagrant breach of this regulation and an attempt to whittle down the authority of the ministry and commission through some negotiation process.
“But championed by the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, MTN was requested to pay the sum of N50 billion as a gesture of good faith towards the settlement of the fine.
“This created attendant confusion over the veracity of the said N50 billion by MTN and the domiciliation of the money in a CBN recovery account as if the money in question was stolen fund.”
Nnaji said his committee later found out that there was an agreement between MTN, the Minister, and the Accountant General of the Federation to further reduce the fine from N780 billion to N330 billion.The point of order was unanimously adopted. Senate President Bukola Saraki, subsequently directed the committee to carry out an investigation and report back to plenary within two weeks.
