MTN FINE : Senate Invites MTN, 2 Ministers, NCC & Accountant General

The Senate Committee on Communications has invited telcoms giants, MTN Nigeria, the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to appear before it this week over the MTN fine.

According to the chairman of the committee, Gilbert Nnaji, the summoned ministers are to shed more light on their roles in MTN’s payment of the N50 billion to the Federal Government.

Senator Nnaji via a statement released on Sunday, March 6 revealed that the committee had also directed the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta and the Accountant-General of the Federation to appear before it.

The committee claimed to have reached the decision to wade into the matter following a public outcry against the transaction.

Furthermore, the committee stated that it would look into the entire process and the circumstances surrounding the payment of the fine to ensure that the country is not short-changed in any way.

The statement read in part,

“The committee wishes therefore to state clearly that going by the records of the NCC, whose constitutional mandate it is to superintend the mobile network operations in the country, and also in the prevailing circumstance, reserves the sole right on behalf of the Federal Government, to receive payment of any sort; MTN has unfortunately not in any way complied or shown any commitment whatsoever in this regard.”