House of Reps to FG: ‘We oppose fine reduction for MTN’

The House of Representative, on Friday, rejected the offer by MTN to return $1.7 billion out of $3.9 billion that it was fined by the Nigerian Communications Commission.

Reacting to the news of the fine reduction, the chairman, House Committee on Telecommunications, Saheed Fijabi, said that the reduction came as a shock to the legislators.

He said the the committee has summoned the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, to appear before it and explain the situation of things.

Fijabi said investigation into the current negotiation between MTN and the federal government was still ongoing, hence “It came to us as a surprise to hear that MTN is paying N300bn or N330bn.”

“How can the company be paying that amount when the minister told us that everything was stalled pending the outcome of our investigation?”

“As a House, we have opposed the reduction of the fine because there is no provision in the NCC’s Act that the fine can be reduced.”

“In fact, Section 21 of the Act stipulates that even the CEO of a defaulting firm can be made to pay additional fine of over N200, 000 on each of the lines.”

“This means that MTN’s total fine should be doubled to about N3tn and not even the N1.4tn it was asked to pay.”

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