South Africa’s MTN Group yesterday in Lagos asked
for an out-of-court settlement in a suit filed by the mobile phone company
against the Nigerian government’s N1.04 trillion fine imposed on its Nigerian
subsidiary, MTN Nigeria, for alleged breach of subscriber registration rules.
It was a major volte face by MTN, the biggest mobile
phone company in Nigeria, at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi when it opted to settle
out of court in the suit filed against the telecoms industry regulator, the
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), who led a powerful team
of MTN lawyers including 10 Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) to the court,
told the Presiding judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, that MTN has opted to settle
out of court.
MTN’s request turns out to be a dramatic anticlimax
to the major legal challenge initiated by the South African mobile phone
company when it decided to challenge the decision of the Nigerian regulator to
impose the fine, based on its claim that NCC lacked the powers to impose the
punishment under its establishing laws.
Opinion were divided from the other parties to the
suit in the wake of MTN’s decision to settle out of court in the legal tussle
against the Nigeria government, which fined the company for not deactivating
over 5.1 million unregistered mobile phone lines on its network.
Following the request by MTN, the Presiding Judge
subsequently adjourned the matter till March 18, this year, when the two
parties are expected to come back with their mutually-agreed decision on the
matter.
At the resumed hearing of the suit filed to
challenge the N1.04tn fine, MTN’s lawyer, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), pleaded
with the presiding judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, to give the parties 60 days
to to settle out of court.
On his part, NCC’s lawyer, Yusuf Alli, (SAN), argues
that the court’s discretion was limited to the rules of court which allows for
just 21 days to file and serve written addresses.
”This is a commercial dispute involving money and in
that light the plaintiff should make an undertaking that its action is not a
plot to hold us down”, Alli told the court.
According to the NCC lawyer, “while I agree with my
learned colleague that we are enjoined by law to support parties’ movement
towards settlement at all times, there must be something flowing from persons
proposing such settlement in good faith, especially in a commercial dispute
like this where money is involved. We are all aware that Naira is losing
value.”
Counsel to the Attorney General of the Federation,
AGF, Oladipo Opeseyi (SAN), in his response to Olanipekun’s 60-day request,
expressed his reservations, disclosing that MTN has not been consistent on the
fine matter.
“We are craving the indulgence of the court to
breach the time stated by the plaintiff, the reason being that this is a matter
of national interest and it now within the domain of the world press and so,
the institution of the judiciary is now on world press”, Opeseyi adds.
The AGF’s lawyer adds thus: ”We are not by any means
against settlement; it must be based in good faith.”
“As it is my lord, we can’t see good faith. There
was a proposed settlement in which the fine was brought down from N1.04
trillion to N780 billion”, Opeseyi argues.
Source: Technology Times
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