Court Rejects FG’s Application to Freeze MTN’s Accounts

Justice Idris Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday, January 12, rejected an application from the federal government seeking to stop MTN Nigeria Communications Limited from transferring it funds out of the country.

The application, by way of a mareva injunction, was targeted at barring MTN from emptying its accounts in 21 commercial banks in the country and preventing the telecoms giant from boycotting the payment of the N1.04 trillion fine imposed on it by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for its failure to deactivate its unregistered subscribers.

The Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), who filed the application yesterday, expressed concern that MTN could move all of its funds out of the country before the fine is enforced.

He therefore 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 N1.04 trillion out of whatever funds that is standing to MTN’s credit in their possession.

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

He revealed that between October 2007 and May 2009, a period of 19 months, MTN moved repatriated $7.7 billion made in Nigeria to a foreign account.

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

“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 said.

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

He said though NCC had given MTN a concession on the fine and reduced it to N780 billion but MTN had neglected or failed to pay on or before the December 31, 2015 deadline, the fine remained N1.04 trillion.