Granting MTN’S Suit Against NCC Will Encourage Impunity – Lagos Lawyer.

A Lagos lawyer, Mr Tope Alabi, has urged the Federal High Court in Lagos to dismiss MTN Nigeria’s suit against the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.

He said that the N1.04trillion fine imposed on MTN was in order, adding that the telecoms firm has no reasonable case against NCC.

MTN is urging court to quash the $3.9billion sanction imposed on it by NCC in October for failing to disconnect unregistered subscribers. The initial fine of $5.2billion was reduced by 25 per cent to $3.9billion. The payment deadline has expired.

But MTN through its lawyers led by Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, is challenging NCC’s powers to impose the fine. It argued that NCC being a regulator cannot assume all the functions of the state.

However, Alabi, in an application seeking to be joined as an interested party, said MTN’s suit was an abuse of court process that must not be tolerated, he further said MTN refused to register 5,200 subscribers despite the extension of deadline.

Alabi prayed the court to grant his application so that he could prove that MTN has no reasonable cause of action against NCC, and that granting MTN’s prayers will encourage a culture of impunity in Nigeria “whereby people would do all kinds of illegal and unlawful acts and get away with it so long as they can secure legal service to escape liability.”