The minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu yesterday confirmed that he will meet with the Senate Committee on Communications today as well as face the House of Reps counterparts on Thursday to explain his role in the N50 billion payment paid by MTN and the withdrawal of court case against the government.
Shittu who was bombarded with questions by journalists in Lagos yesterday during a working visit to three telecommunications operating companies, MainOne, MTN and Globacom said the request of the lawmakers was in order.
According to him, the legislature has the power to empower law, from time to time, the activities of the executive arm of government are to ensure transparency in the system, he said.
He said,“The latest about the MTN fine matter now is that, MTN, which took the government to court for imposing N1.04 trillion on it for violation of Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) registration rule has come out to say it wanted an out of court settlement.
In a democratic system, out-of-court arrangement should be encouraged for peaceful resolution of any matter and we have accepted their offer to settle out of court. “We have also given them conditions to withdraw the case and make some commitment payment in good faith for us to begin further negotiations and they have down the two.
He said,“But the lawmakers are saying they wanted transparency on the two matters for which I am ready to address first before House of Representation tomorrow (today) and later in the Senate. I am, indeed, more than prepared to discuss how the whole exercise is going with the lawmakers”.
The Senate had summoned that Shittu, alongside the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to explain their role in the claim that MTN Nigeria Limited had paid N50 billion to the Federal Government.
