The Nigerian Senate has slammed the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other parties involved in the resolution of the fine slammed on MTN. According to the Senate Committee on Communications, it has rejected the terms of agreement between the NCC and MTN, adding that Nigeria was short-changed.
The senate subsequently asked the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami; Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu; Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Professor Umar Dambatta; Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of MTN and the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, to appear before the committee on June 23 to explain the rationale behind the deal.
In the early reactions of the committee, it accused the NCC of short-changing Nigeria in the deal, describing it as a move “that is characterised with suspected criminal tendencies as they were perfected secretly particularly without recourse to due process.”
The committee Chairman, Senator Gilbert Nnaji, in a letter dated June 15, 2016, and separately addressed to all parties to the deal, condemned the manner in which the “settlement agreement of N330 billion was reached with MTN out of a whooping N1.04 trillion.”
An excerpt from the letter read: “As a committee and representatives of the Nigerian people, we are saddened about this development at a time when the Nigerian economy needs all the available capital infusion to bolster it. It is our strong opinion that Nigeria has been shortchanged in this whole process on account of the ridiculous settlement payment plan; coupled with the disparity in the exchange rate regime when the fine was imposed ab initio compared with the current prevailing exchange rate when it was agreed to cut the fine to N330 billion.”
