Members of the House of Representatives, on Tuesday, walked out the representative of the MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, Manager on Government Affairs, Austin Iyasere, during the resumed hearing in the investigation into the N1.04 trillion fine slammed on the company by the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC).
To this end, the House said the Chief Executive Officer, CEO of the company, Ferdinand Moolman, must appear before it in person failure which warrant of arrest would be issued on him.
The House also summoned the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria,Godwin Emefiele and the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, to appear in person at a date to be communicated to them.
The Chairman of the House committee on Telecommunications, Saheed Akinade-Fijabi, while ruling on a letter sent to the committee by the MTN boss, berated the company CEO over the letter he sent to the committee through his representative.
A member of the committee, Nicholas Ossai, during the sitting, raised an objection that those invited failed to show up, saying that Sections 88 and 89 of the constitution empowered the committee to invite anybody, irrespective of how highly placed she or he is in the country.
The MTN boss, in a letter entitled: Re: Amicable Settlement Negotiations With the FG, which read in part said “we note your reference to the above mentioned subject matter. In this regard we wish to refer you to the appropriate government agencies, specifically the Nigerian Communications Commission, Offices of the Honourable Ministers of Communication and Justice as well as the Central Bank of Nigeria which agencies are in a position to furnish your committee with relevant information on this issue.
“As you know, MTN is pursuing amicable settlement negotiations with the Federal Government. We believe you will understand that processes of this kind require sensitivity and confidentiality on all sides.
“Accordingly we are unable to make any further comments about the process at this stage.
“We trust that we can call upon your sound judgment at all times and that this process be allowed to continue in order for the parties to be given the opportunity to reach a settlement as envisaged by the court when it adjourned the matter for that purpose on 22 January 2016.”
A member of the committee, Johnson Agbonayinma, while reacting to the MTN correspondence, saidit was insulting for MTN to dictate to the committee.
“We can not say we want to encourage investors into the country at our own detriments, the laws of the land must be obeyed to the letter. Over 10,000 Nigerians have been killed through the negligence of the MTN for its failure to capture in their data base their lines as required by the law, we should walk out the MTN representative from this sitting,” he said.
The chairman of the committee, in a chat with journalists, said “we’ve invited the MD, if he fails to show up we’ll approach the IGP and through him order for his arrest.”
