The Minister of Communications
Technology, Adebayo Shittu yesterday said that government’s position on the out
of court settlement sought by MTN on the N1.04 trillion fine over
non-disconnection of improperly registered subscribers, is that the operators
should pay the fine first. Shittu, while addressing newsmen in Lagos yesterday
said the MTN violated extant laws, accepted responsibility and also wrote a
letter of apology promising to be a responsible corporate citizen.
He expressed shock that the telco turned back to go to court after government
had listened to its plea and reduced the fine.
According to him, “MTN begged for a revision
of the sanction which Mr President graciously acceded to, but the telco turned
around to say it had no money to pay.
“The government wrote back asking
MTN to write a letter stating why it will go down after paying the fine and
attaching statement of its account so that the government will realise the
dangers the payment will constitute to its financial health”.
Shittu said he was later to receive
a call from the telco informing him that it was going to court. He said since
the matter is now before the court, the government will wait for the court’s
decision.
According to him, nobody wants MTN dead arguing that the telco
violated the laws for which there are consequences.
It would be recalled that
MTN was sanctioned about $5.1billion or N1.7trillion for fraudulently keeping
some 5.2million preregistered SIMs on its network, a development analysts said
amounted to sabotage in view of the security challenges facing the country.
By
Prince Osuagwu & Emeka Aginam
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