16th March, 2016
The House of Representatives on Tuesday, walked out the representative of MTN, Mr Austin Iyasere over the non-appearance of his Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ferdinand Moolman.
The Telecommunications Committee had been mandated by the House to look into the N1.04 trillion settlement negotiations between MTN and the Federal Government.
Rep. Saheed Akinade-Fijabi (Oyo-APC), Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Telecommunications, decried MTN’s letter which referred the committee to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
He added that MTN’s letter also referred the committee to the Central Bank of Nigeria and others to get the information it was seeking.
The letter reads, “…in this regard, we wish to refer you to the appropriate government agencies, specifically the NCC, Ministers of Communication and Justice and Central Bank of Nigeria. These agencies are in a position to furnish your committee with relevant information on this issue.”
Member of the Committee, Rep. Ossai Ossai (PDP-Delta), expressed his anger when he quoted section 87 and 88 of the standing orders of the House, which state that the parliament could summon anyone before it and demand for information.
Rep. Johnson Agbonayinma (Edo-PDP), said that due to MTN’s negligence, a lot of Nigerians had been killed because it failed to disconnect unregistered SIM cards which the insurgents used.
He added that in as much as Nigeria wanted investors, its law must be respected.
He recalled President Muhammadu Buhari’s comment saying that Government was interested more in security rather than the fine imposed on it by the NCC.
“MTN is treading on a tiger’s back, we are here to represent our constituencies and we are talking about people’s lives, this is no joke”, he added.
The Chairman of the committee said MTN’s CEO deliberately did not want to appear before the committee.
It summoned the CEO again to appear before it at a later date.