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 sactioned 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.
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