Business
Telecom firms drag Nat’l Assembly to court
Feeling embarrassed by incessant summons by the National Assembly, telecommunications companies, under the aegis of Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) have dragged the lawmakers to court.
In their suit filed before the Federal High Court Abuja, the telecom firms want the court to explain to them the type of information the National Assembly by law can demand from private companies.
Among other prayers, the firms want to know the level of the National Assembly’s oversight functions over private companies, mainly telecommunications firms, the specific nature of directives that could be made by it pursuant to the outcome of its investigative activities and the proprietary of the National Assembly to issue the summons and insist that its members must be represented by their CEOs and not senior management officials.
ALTON chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, who made the development known to newsmen on Sunday in Lagos, explained that they resorted to drag the matter to court because the National Assembly has flooded telecom firms’ CEOs with incessant summons from its different committees.
READ ALSO: ‘Lies. Ignore. No such thing’, Saraki denies report he’s running for president in 2019
“We have the regulator, which is the Nigerian Communications Commission, established by the Act of parliament, and we have the Ministry of Communications, which oversees the industry on behalf of the Presidency. We are private companies and the funds we administer in our organisation are not appropriated by the Federal Government. It is out of place to receive an invitation from the parliament to come and explain funds related to OPEX or CAPEX.
“It is out of place for the parliament to ask us to explain details of our payroll and why we pay workers what we pay them. It is also out of place for the parliament to ask us to bring a list of taxes we have paid when there is the Federal Inland Revenue Service, an agency of government charged with tax collection,” Adebayo said.
RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears
Click here to join the Ripples Nigeria WhatsApp group for latest updates.
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...
SPECIAL REPORT: Torturous experiences of students with disabilities in Oyo tertiary institutions
For students with disabilities in Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, learning is a torturous and distressing experience, considering the building structures...