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$8.1BN SUIT: MTN seeks out of court settlement

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$8.1BN SUIT: MTN seeks out of court settlement

Telecommunication firm, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, on Tuesday, asked the Federal High Court in Lagos for a further adjournment in the suit it filed to challenge the $8,134,312,397.63 being demanded from it by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
CBN had asked MTN to pay the sum of The $8.1bn for alleged forex remittances infraction.

When the case came up on Tuesday, MTN’s lead counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, informed the court that his client had approached the CBN for possible amicable resolution of the dispute.

Olanipekun, prayed Justice Saliu Saidu to further adjourn the suit to enable parties to fully explore out-of-court resolution and deliberate on the terms of the settlement.

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Seyi Sowemimo, SAN, the lead counsel for CBN, confirmed Olanipekun’s position, adding that discussions for possible out-of-court settlement were in the advanced stage.

Justice Saidu adjourned till December 12, 2018, for a report of the settlement between the parties.

It would be recalled that MTN had filed the suit, marked FHC/L/CS/1475/2018, in November, urging the court to declare that the CBN acted ultra vires of its statutory powers when it wrote an August 28, 2018 letter to it demanding a refund of $8.1bn.

The firm urged the court to hold that the CBN’s $8.1bn demand was “illegal, oppressive, abusive, unauthorised and unconstitutional.”

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