The House of Representatives yesterday, said that the embattled MTN Nigeria, was underfined by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, disclosing that the actual fine stood at N3, 120, 000, 200, 000.00trillion and not N1, 040, 000, 000. 00 as made to believe all along.

The House during its plenary also queried the power of the NCC and the Attorney General of the Federation, AGF and Minister of Justice, to negotiate and reduce the fine of the multinatioal telecommunication company, saying tnhat it was a flagrant breach of the law on this matter.

This followed a motion brought before it by Ehiozuwa Johnson Agbonayinma, on the need to investigate the payment made by MTN on the fine levied by the NCC. The lawmaker noted the Federal Republic of Nigeria official Gazzette No 101 Government Notice No 229- Nigerian Communications Commission (Registration of Telephone Subscribers) Registration, 2011 B1125- 1134 He further noted that the NCC in October 2015, fined the MTN for violation of Section 19 and 20 of the regulation.

He said that Section 19- (1) prescribed that any licensee who failed to capture, register, deregister or transmit the details of any individual or corporate subscribers to the Central Database as specified in the regulations or as may be stipulated from time to time by the commission is liable to a penalty of N200, 000. 00 for each subscriber medium. Also, a licensee who activates any subscription medium without capturing, registering and transmitting the personal information to the central database commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine of N200, 000. 00 for each unregistered activated subscription medium.

Agbonayinma told the House that Section 20- (1) stipulated that any licensee who activates or fails to deactivate a subscription medium in violation of any provision of these Regulation is liable to a penalty of N200, 000. 00 for each unregistered but activated subscription medium. “(2) Where the commission is satisfied that a body corporate is culpable, the Director, Chief Executive Officer, Manager or Secretary shall also be liable to pay a fine of N200, 000. 00 unless, having regard to the nature of his functions in that capacity and to all the surrounding circumstances, he proves that- (I) the offence was committed without his knowledge, consent or connivance, and, (ii), he took all reasonable precautions and exercised due diligence to prevent the commission of the breach.” The legislator said that he was aware that MTN specifically violated Sections 19 (1) and (2) and 20 (1) and (2) of the NCC Act cited above.

H said that he was aware that, “MTN ought to have been fined under both Section 19 and Section 20 respectively with cummulative penalty of N3, 120, 000, 200, 000. 00 trillion and not the N1, 040, 000, 000. 00 which is a gross violation of the combined reading of both Section 19 and Section 20 of the NCC Act.” He observed that MTN paid N50 billion into the recovery account in violation of extant laws, and was dismayed that the NCC was not part of the negotiation process with the MTN, an action which is not in best interest of the nation. The House presided over by Speaker Yakubu Dogara, adopted the motion and resolved to set up an ad-hoc committee, to investigate the issues, pursuant to Section 88 of the constitution, other than Telecommunication Committee, which has been investigating the matter.

The House was also adopting strong position to tackle the MTN and bring it to its knees in view of the abuses and disregard to Nigerian parliament that dominated discussion on the floor of the House yesterday. The House expressed serious annoyance with the NCC for not fining the MTN adequately, and warned that both the NCC and AGF should come with a bill to amend the existing law on this issue, if they are desirous of helping MTN, as no deduction at this stage would be lawful except it passes through the parliament.

The Committee on Telecommunication, had on Tuesday March 15, threatened to issue a warrant of arrest on the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of MTN Nigeria, Ferdinand Moolman, if he failed to honour the summon that is about to be issued on him. The committee, which was very furious at the contemptuous manner with which Moolman treated its invitation to investigative hearings, and went ahead to walk out his representative Manager, Government Affairs, Austine Iyasere, from its sitting

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