A move by the Nigerian government through the office of the attorney general to prevent MTN from moving its funds out of Nigeria in the wake of the hefty fine has been blocked by Justice Idris Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Lagos.
According to media reports, government’s application, by way of a mareva injunction, was targeted at barring MTN from emptying its accounts in 21 commercial banks in the country and preventing the telecoms giant from boycotting the payment of the N1.04 trillion fine imposed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for its failure to deactivate its unregistered subscribers.
The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), who filed the application yesterday, expressed concern that MTN could move all of its funds out of the country before the fine is enforced.
He therefore 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 N1.04 trillion out of whatever funds that is standing to MTN’s credit in their possession. Counsel to the AGF, Mr. Dipo Okpeseyi (SAN), in a 14-paragraph affidavit deposed to by his junior, Steve Nwabueze, argued that MTN was in the habit of repatriating its funds out of Nigeria.
He revealed that between October 2007 and May 2009, a period of 19 months, MTN moved repatriated $7.7 billion made in Nigeria to a foreign account.
