Senate summons minister, AGF, others over MTN fine

The Senate Committee on Communications has summoned the Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, and the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, to appear before it this week.
The two ministers, according to the chairman of the committee, Gilbert Nnaji, are to explain their roles in the payment of N50bn to the Federal Government by MTN.
In a statement on Sunday, Nnaji also said that his committee had summoned the Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta; the Accountant-General of the Federation; and the Chief Executive Officer of MTN.
The committee said it had decided to intervene due to public outcry against the transaction.
It added that it would review the circumstances surrounding the entire process with a view to straightening the records and also ensuring that the country was not short-changed.
The statement read in part, “The committee wishes therefore to state clearly that going by the records of the NCC, whose constitutional mandate it is to superintend the mobile network operations in the country, and also in the prevailing circumstance, reserves the sole right on behalf of the Federal Government, to receive payment of any sort; MTN has unfortunately not in any way complied or shown any commitment whatsoever in this regard.” Punch