A Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday turned down an application of mareva injunction seeking to bar MTN Nigeria Communications Limited from emptying its accounts in 21 commercial banks in Nigeria.


The application had been filed to prevent MTN from boycotting the payment of the N1.04tn fine imposed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission for its failure to deactivate its unregistered subscribers.
The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), who filed the application on Tuesday, had expressed the fear that MTN could move all its funds out of the country before the N1.04tn fine could be enforced.



He had sought an order directing all the 21 banks to open a special interest-yielding account in the name of the Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court and move N1.04tn out of whatever funds that was standing to MTN’s credit in their possession.


The counsel for the AGF, Mr. Dipo Okpeseyi (SAN), in a 14-paragraph affidavit deposed to by his junior, Steve Nwabueze, had argued that MTN was in the habit of regularly repatriating its funds out of Nigeria.


He noted that between October 2007 and May 2009, a period of 19 months, MTN moved over $7.7bn of the money made in Nigeria to a foreign account.


He further pointed the court’s attention to an instance when in one day, specifically on February 8, 2008, MTN transferred over $936m out of Nigeria to accounts in Mauritius, Cayman Island and British Virgin Island.


“Unless this honourable court urgently entertains this application, the plaintiff/respondent would move its funds out of Nigeria, being the jurisdiction of this honourable court, and thereby frustrate the enforcement of the fine in the likely event that this honourable court sanctions the imposition of the fine,” the AGF’s counsel added.


Okpeseyi maintained that MTN was under an obligation to pay the N1.04tn fine, because it was NCC’s administrative decision, which remained final unless it was reviewed by the commission or nullified by the court.


He said though NCC had earlier given MTN a concession on the fine and reduced it to N780bn, but since MTN had neglected or failed to pay on or before December 31, 2015, the fine remained N1.04tn.


He alleged that instead of taking advantage of the concession MTN resorted to filing a suit in order to buy time, with the hope that it could move all its funds out of Nigeria before the case would be decided.


Okpseyi urged the court to grant the application in the interest of justice to prevent the court’s decision from being rendered nugatory if it went in the favour of NCC and AGF.

But Justice Idris Mohammed turned down the application as he said the AGF had not shown enough facts to prove that MTN was about to empty its bank accounts and move its funds out of the country.
Idris, who noted that the case was sensitive and of public interest, said he would rather urgently hear the case filed by MTN to challenge the fine and give a judgment within a short time.


He, however, made an order for the parties to maintain status quo ante bellum pending the determination of the suit and adjourned till January 22, 2016 for hearing.
MTN had assembled seven Senior Advocates of Nigeria, led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, to challenge the N1.04tn fine imposed on it by NCC.


The company contended that NCC could not act pursuant to Section 70 of its establishment Act to impose the fine on it.

But Malami, who took sides with the NCC and justified the imposed fine, said it was his duty, as the chief law enforcement officer in the country, to ensure that all the laws made by the National Assembly are obeyed.



SOURCE: http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2016/01/12/court-bars-fg-from-freezing-mtn-bank-accounts

K

Really?

Nija court self dey fear face abi? This is nija where the law is made for the poor and commoners.

Ok...mareva injunction

MTN can repatriate funds to home. Imagine almost $1bn in one day.

MTN sef

Ok

MTN......just pay up please.

That is the problem with Nigeria....people refuse to obey the laws....and everyone thinks it is normal.

Well....it ain't.

The Court Understands Better than the Federal Government. Any Shortage in MTN Output will lead to poor tax payable by MTN and result to shortage in Revenue accruable to the Federation account.

If Federal Government is banking on The Liquidated Nitel taking over MTN, They should alow it to operate for at least a year and determine for themselves if it can raise enough revenue as MTN before they can decide to squeeze life out of MTN.

But MTN Knows the truth. Nigeria can not be the same again without MTN. That is why they went ahead to liquidate Visafone even though they have a fine to pay.

is ok

Buhari budget has gotten another K leg

Mtn bribed the just like dstv did. What's wrong with our judicial system! We have enough network providers, need more? Create more! Empower individuals to start up! shut this Yello fevers down and let the others learn from them. Over 20 network providers in the US, sms is free, calls are relatively cheap.

Sincerely dunno the jinx this SA guys have over us, or our big men has shares invest in their companies here, cuz I don't see why this guy's will kill us in the name of xenophobia and yet Shoprite, dstv, mtn is still chopping our heads here.

The white man control a vast section of your economy and you choose to blame your fellow black and claim it's xenophobia, what the hell is wrong with Africa and Africans.

Will Buhari obey this court order. There should be no court in this milicivi regime. Infact courts should be scrap out.

Vivipop:
I hope my president obeys court's order this time.

dem no born im papa well

Hey! this is what i call "e don happen ministries international ltd." . NCC dey vex o! no wonder MTN no wan let me rest. i dey register my sim every week. when i finish, dem go dey disturb me to register again with 2k free airtime. When your cup full, u go hear am... lol

Battle

Ggg

Ok

Hmmmm....

Owk. I will see how long the substantive suit will last.

My holy god,will somebody talk sense into this judge,have MTN nt milked us enof,NCC pls call the presidency,disobey the court order and freeze there accounts immediately,south africa are ugrateful and crooks,imagine,naija don fall hands too much abe.can this thrash happen in there land?

If anti orruption succeed or fail in Nigeria, it is the lawyers and Judges that are responsible. Period.

I no dey Understand Court at times.

Even while at fault MTN openly operates with impunity. Their lobby-power is very strong for them to frustrate our Federal Government.

the court ruling denying the trillion naira lien on mtn's bank accounts by the minister of justice ,to my mind, is a sound ruling as mtn obviously has more than enough assets in Nigeria other than cash to satisfy a trillion naira judgement . a trillion naira fine ,no matter the infraction is an excessive fine.In the realm of company/csr law, fines are not meant to kill a company but to deter it from going over borders.mtn will surely win .
we have asked the government to approach issues with the best of intelligence/wisdom. You cannot impose a trillion naira fine on a company unless the intention is to kill the company.

MTN might use every available means to delay the payment of the fine, but it must be paid with interest till the day it's settled. Period.

Vivipop:
I hope my president obeys court's order this time. Meanwhile, MTN should stop being tricky.

Lol, nne what would he do? Go and withdraw the money from MTN's accounts himself? Lol...

Mtn still think say pdp still dey power. Awon oloshi jati jati. Wey buhari Don calculate their money join budget.

Hmmm...courts

K