Senate frowns at planned reduction of MTN fine from $8.1b to $800m

The Nigerian Senate has frowned against attempts by the Federal Government to reduce the $8.1 billion fine imposed on MTN Nigeria, to $800 million.

The Senate, which insisted that it has nothing in particular against whatever government plans to do with the fine, said it was interested in the planned reduction and should be intimated on why the reduction became necessary.

The upper chamber of the National Assembly also said how the percentage of reduction from $8.1 billion to $800 million was arrived at was of interest to it, adding that it was equally interested in knowing what informed the penalty of $8.1 billion in the first instance.

It would be recalled that the Govenor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, had hinted on the reduction recently while addressing reporters in London, adding that new documents provided by the telecom company would help to reduce the size of the claim.

“I don’t think it will be staying at $8.1 billion. I want to believe that the figure will reduce. Whether it will be dropped completely, I honestly cannot say at this time. The central bank will be examining these, then it will be escalated up to my level,” Emefiele had said.

Speaking with reporters in Abuja on Tuesday, Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Finan-
cial Institutions, Rafiu Adebayo Ibrahim, said he was shocked when he was contacted that the CBN failed to implement Senate resolutions before conducting another investigation into the alleged infraction by MTN.

According Ibrahim, his committee would immediately ask for CBN report on the matter to be better informed, insisting that the only way Nigerians would know what transpired between the CBN and MTN on the $8.1 billion fine was through a detailed report.

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Ibrahim said: “The last time we heard about this issue was when we had a little retreat last two weeks in Lagos, where they (CBN) did the presentation of their biannual activities to the committee (Senate Committee).

“We took them up on the issue, and the bank told us how they did the investigation. We are taking them up based on the fact that we have investigated and we saw what happened. All our resolutions were passed to them, and they did not even implement the resolutions before saying they’re going into another investigation.

“They said their investigation was based on a petition from a law firm and their stand was that the penalty was correct.

“So, judging from the information we have now, it will be ridiculous for them to say they’re bringing the penalty down from $8.1 billion to about $800 million. That will be ridiculous for the CBN.

“What they told us that day was that they were going to give us the report from when they started the investigation to date and their discussion with MTN.”

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