A
Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Tuesday declined making an order to stop
MTN Nigeria Communications Limited from moving its funds in 21 Nigerian banks
out of the country.
The
mareva application had been filed to prevent MTN from boycotting the payment of
the N1.04tn fine imposed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission for
its failure to deactivate its unregistered subscribers.
The
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami
(SAN), who filed the application on Tuesday, expressed the fear that MTN could
move all its funds out of the country before the N1.04tn fine could be
enforced.
He
had sought an order directing all the 21 banks to open a special
interest-yielding account in the name of the Chief Registrar of the Federal
High Court and move N1.04tn out of the funds belonging to MTN into it.
The
counsel for the AGF, Mr. Dipo Okpeseyi (SAN), in a 14-paragraph affidavit
deposed to by a lawyer in his chamber, Steve Nwabueze, had argued that MTN was
in the habit of regularly repatriating its funds out of Nigeria.
He
noted that between October 2007 and May 2009, a period of 19 months, MTN moved
over $7.7bn of the money made in Nigeria to a foreign account.
He
further drew the court’s attention to an instance when in one day, specifically
on February 8, 2008, MTN transferred over $936m out of Nigeria to accounts in
Mauritius, Cayman Island and British Virgin Island.
“Unless
this honourable court urgently entertains this application, the
plaintiff/respondent would move its funds out of Nigeria, being the
jurisdiction of this honourable court, and thereby frustrate the enforcement of
the fine in the likely event that this honourable court sanctions the
imposition of the fine,” the AGF’s counsel added.
Okpeseyi
maintained that MTN was under an obligation to pay the N1.04tn fine because it
was NCC’s administrative decision which remained final, unless it was reviewed
by the commission or nullified by the court.
He
said though NCC had earlier given MTN a concession on the fine and reduced it
to N780bn, but since MTN had neglected or failed to pay on or before December
31, 2015, the fine remained N1.04tn.
He
alleged that instead of taking advantage of the concession, MTN resorted to
filing a suit in order to buy time, with the hope that it could move all its
funds out of Nigeria before the case would be decided.
Okpeseyi
urged the court to grant the application in the interest of justice to prevent
the court’s decision from being rendered nugatory if it went in favour of NCC
and the AGF.
But
Justice Mohammed Idris declined making the order as he said the AGF had not
shown enough facts to prove that MTN was about to move its funds out of the
country.
Idris,
who noted that the case was sensitive and of public interest, said he would
rather urgently hear the case filed by MTN to challenge the fine and give a
judgment within a short time.
He,
however, made an order for the parties to maintain the status quo ante bellum
pending the determination of the suit and adjourned till January 22, 2016 for
hearing.
MTN
had assembled seven Senior Advocates of Nigeria, led by Chief Wole Olanipekun,
to challenge the N1.04tn fine imposed on it by NCC.
The
company contended that the NCC could not act pursuant to Section 70 of the NCC
Act to impose the fine on it.
But
Malami, who took sides with the NCC and justified the imposed fine, said it was
his duty, as the chief law enforcement officer in the country, to ensure that
all the laws made by the National Assembly were obeyed.
Source: The Punch
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