NCC and South African telecommunication giants, MTN are still at loggerheads concerning the heavy fine slammed on the company by the former over its failure to deactivate the sims of subscribers at the stipulated time.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has faulted the competence of the suit filed by MTN Nigeria Communications Limited challenging the N1.04 trillion fine slammed on it (MTN) for allegedly breaching NCC’s statutory and regulatory directives according to
MTN had sued NCC before the Federal High Court, Lagos and sought to void NCC’s decision to penalize it for failing to among others, register about 5.2 million subscribers within a given deadline.
NCC, in a motion on notice, prepared on its behalf by a group of lawyers including Ahmed Raji (SAN) and Mahmud Magaji (SAN), queried the competence of the suit, the court’s jurisdiction to hear it and argued that MTN failed to ensure proper service of court documents on its.
It is the NCC’s contention that the suit was wrongly instituted in the Lagos division of the Federal High Court and that MTN, in serving to court processes on it, failed to comply with the provision of section 143 of the NCC Act which stipulates that all court processes are to be served at the principal office of NCC.
NCC argued that it was not only wrong for MTN to have served court processes in relation to the suit on its Lagos office, the telecommunication company initiated the suit at the wrong venue by going before the Federal High Court, Lagos, which lacked the territorial jurisdiction to determine the dispute.
It stated, in a supporting affidavit, that not only did all facts relating to the dispute occur in Abuja, both defendants in the suit – NCC and the Attorney general of the Federation (AGF) – have their principal offices in Abuja.
NCC therefore prayed the court to set aside the purported service of all processes in the case on it. In the alternative, it wants the court to either decline jurisdiction over the case or transfer it to its Abuja division.
MTN is, by the suit, challenging NCC’s powers of to impose fine even as a regulator.