MTN Is A Total Fraud..How it Defrauded NITEL Of N1tn ..Says Nitel GM,Ex Gov Oyinlola

·         General Manager Operations with the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), Solomon Ogundele and former Osun State governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola have accused the MTN Nigeria Communications Limited of colluding with Regulatory agencies to divert over N1 trillion belonging to NITEL by fraudulent means.

The allegation was made by the duo in separate affidavits they deposed to in support of a suit filed against MTN and the regulatory agency before a Federal High Court, Abuja by three plaintiffs including Oyinlola, Osun and Ekiti State chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). They accused the defendants of allegedly supplying incomplete call data during the sittings of the National Judicial Council (NJC) Special Investigation Panel(SIP) on the controversy which surrounded the governorship elections in both states.

According to Ogundele, in a 62- paragraph affidavit he deposed to and filed before the court on May 9, 2012, he alleged that the agency deliberately and in collusion with the telecom company and others, introduced a fraudulent interconnection agreement which allocated specific, but excessive value to call termination as a tool for perpetrating massive fraud and money laundering.

It would be recalled that the Justice Umaru Abdullahi-led NJC probe panel had cleared the re-instated President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Isa Salami and other jurists they investigated, based on the call logs supplied by MTN, which the plaintiffs alleged were incomplete and inadequate.

Dissatisfied, Oyinlola and the PDP slammed a N150 billion suit on MTN for allegedly doctoring those call data records, while also praying the court to revoke the operating licence of the telecommunications outfit.
He averred that at the inception of deregulation in the telecommunications industry in the country, NITEL would have made over N1 trillion, but this did not happen because the regulatory agency compromised its statutory and regulatory duties, roles and control over MTN and others.

“The only valid licence that the first defendant (MTN) is holding in Nigeria is the GSM licence which it paid for in 2001.   All other licences being held by the first defendant in Nigeria; including the 3G frequency spectrum and communication backbone licences are illicit by virtue of illegal exemptions, violation of the relevant provisions ofºå the Public Procurement Act and fraudulent encroachment of the National Carrier licences legally and validly issued to NITEL and Globacom Limited.

Plaintiffs alleged that the second defendant was reckless in liquidating NITEL that it created a situation where NITEL has also been compelled to settle invoices of the first defendant and others running into several billions of Naira which NITEL could not verify with its own internal data because the second defendant prevented NITEL from doing so.

They claimed that the corrupt tendencies of the 1st defendant got to a point in 2005, that former President Olusegun Obasanjo had to report its activities in Nigeria to former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, for the 1st defendant, MTN’s policy of giving free recharge cards to Nigerian lawmakers.
On his part, Oyinlola in a 37-paragraph affidavit, averred that the failure of the first defendant to release correct call data imparted negatively on his petition investigated by the NJC. 

According to Oyinlola “If the 1st defendant had released adequate and complete call data records to the relevant security agencies and such call records are submitted or tendered before the NJC Special Investigative Panel, the recommendations of the Report Review Committee of the NJC and its Panel would have been different.

·         In a 68-paragraph statement of claim, the plaintiffs claimed that “Sometime in 2010, the Governorship Election Appeal Tribunals in Ibadan and Ilorin nullified the elections of Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola (third plaintiff) and Chief Segun Oni of Osun and Ekiti states respectively and declared Mr. Rauf Aregbesola and Dr. Kayode Fayemi as the duly elected Governors of Osun and Ekiti states respectively.

As an expression of their dissatisfaction with the said judgement, Prince Oyinlola and the PDP, Osun State as well as Chief Oni and PDP, Ekiti State, forwarded and submitted petitions to the National Judicial Council (NJC) alleging corruption against certain judicial officers in the handling and determination of governorship election appeals in respect of Osun and Ekiti states.

·         “During the course of investigations carried out by an arm of government’s law enforcement and security agencies in the country, the office of the Area Commander Nigeria Police Force, Area “G” Command Headquarters, Ogba, Lagos did request that MTN Nigeria furnish it with information on telephone subscriber number 08034004887 and 08034010700. MTN did furnish the aforementioned Area Command Office the call data records of the two numbers aforementioned. The plaintiffs shall rely on the covering letter written by MTN (Ref: CR 3000/LS/AG/V.14/81) dated February 1, 2011 and the call data records of the two numbers at the trial of this suit.