A
Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has ordered both parties in the suit, NCC and Mtn Nigeria to
maintain status quo ante bellum
following an application for mareva injunction (temporary injunction which freezes the assets of a party pending an outcome, subsequent order or a final resolution of the court) filed by the Attorney General of the Federation, to restrain MTN Nigeria from
tampering with its financial accounts in Nigeria in view of the fine of N1.04
trillion instituted against it by the Nigerian Communication Commission, NCC.
Following
the directives to deactivate unregistered subscribers as directed by the telecommunication
regulatory body, NCC to all the service providers, NCC had placed a fine on MTN,
the largest GSM company in Nigeria, over its failure to comply. Though, MTN was
earlier given a consideration on the fine leading to its reduction to N780
billion, however, MTN failed to comply prior to the deadline, December 31, 2015.
Consequently, the fine reversed to its original sum of N1.04 trillion.
The
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN,
who sought for a mareva injunction (temporary
injunction which freezes the assets of a party pending an outcome, subsequent
order or a final resolution of the court), contended that MTN having a track record of
continually moving its funds out of Nigeria could empty its account strategically
to frustrate the enforcement of the fine if not prevented.
In his prayers, he specifically requested for an order to compel
all the company’s bankers to open a special interest-yielding account in the
name of the Chief Registrar of the Federal High Court in which the amount
should be directed into pending determination of the matter.
Mr.
Dipo Okpeseyi, SAN, counsel to the AGF in a 14-paragraph affidavit in support
of the application, stated that between October 2007 and May 2009, MTN moved
over $7.7 billion ot its money made in Nigeria to a foreign account adding that
on February 8, 2008, MTN transferred over $936 million out of Nigeria to
accounts in Mauritius, Cayman Island and British Virgin Islands.
The
AGF, therefore sought for “an order of mareva
injunction restraining the specified banks from releasing, further releasing
any funds, making sale, transfer or payment of any monies or dealing in any
manner whatsoever with any and all monies maintained by the
plaintiff/respondent (MTN) or its agents, privies, subsidiaries, sister
companies or the like in the aforestated banks that will alter, decline or
reduce the amount of the first defendant’s/applicant’s fine against the
plaintiff/respondent in the sum of N1,040,000,000,000 which has remained wholly
unsatisfied, pending the determination of the motion on notice.”
“Unless
this 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 stated.
The
trial judge, Justice Idris Mohammed, after taking the submission, however noted
that due to the elements of public interest in the matter, it would require diligence,
hence requested to hear the case filed by MTN challenging the fine first.
Consequently, he ordered parties to maintain status quo ante bellum pending the determination of the suit
and adjourned till January 22, 2016 for hearing.
“An order is hereby made directing the parties cited
herein to maintain the status quo ante bellum pending further hearing,” the trial judge
said.
Seemingly,
the order of the court was not explicitly clear as to the status quo to be
maintained as the court did not expressly grant the application by preventing
MTN from moving funds from the accounts in the 21 commercial banks in Nigeria
outside the country noting that the AGF had not shown enough facts to convince
the court that MTN was about to move its funds out of the country in order to
frustrate the final judgment.
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