Court didn’t order 9mobile to pay N55bn debt to Keystone Bank

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

The management of 9mobile has rubbished reports in the media that a court ordered it to pay N55 billion debt to Keystone Bank.

The management of 9mobile, in a statement, said its attention had been drawn to a wave of syndicated media publications dated Friday 19, July 2024 with the same copious headline, “Court orders 9mobile to pay N55bn debt to Keystone Bank.”

“The Management of 9mobile wishes to inform the concerned public and critical stakeholders that, contrary to this misleading headline, Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Limited (EMTS), trading as 9mobile was neither a party to any suit nor affected by the order said to have been made against it as an entity.

“The said story is not only false but also defamatory in its effect on the 9mobile corporate reputation. If the correspondents who filed the obviously syndicated news stories were anywhere near the court room during the proceedings leading to the issuance of the said order, they would have known that at no point was 9mobile a party to the suit in question. Rather, the action was appropriately classified and filed as, “Keystone Bank v. Teleology Nigeria Limited,” the statement said.

The statement added that for the avoidance of doubt, no judgement was made against 9mobile and that the attempt to link its corporate entity with a transaction by its minority shareholder, Teleology Nigeria Limited in its legal tussle with Keystone Bank, was false and maliciously misleading.

“9Mobile is under new ownership with a 95.5 % controlling stake in the business and has not been found liable for the action of its minority shareholder in the suit in question.

“Our business transformation programme has commenced and we are poised to reclaim our place in the market.” the statement said.