Boco Edet
3 July 2009
Abuja — The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) does not have the statutory power to grant Mobitel or any telecommunications outfit waiver for spectrum or operations fees, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said yesterday in Abuja.
Spokesman for the anti-corruption agency, Femi Babafemi said the arrest of the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Johnson Salako was part of investigations into NCC's activities.
Babafemi told Daily Trust that NCC boss Ernest Ndukwe and other top officials of the regulatory agency have been invited to the commission to make statements and "we are still investigating."
NCC granted Mobitel a waiver of N242million between May and October, 2008 after its former shareholders paid N500million out of a total of N746 million owed for outstanding spectrum and other operations fees.
The company went to court last Wednesday seeking the release of its President and the enforcement of his human rights. It complained he was been detained for more than 48 hours.
EFCC however obtained a court order to detain him for 21 days.
Mobitel in a statement published yesterday said, "The management of the old Mobitel applied officially for and officially received a waiver in respect of fees and levies attributable to the three year period when the company was non-operational. And all this happened before the new management of Mobitel took over reins of the company on the 14th of November, 2008."
The outfit said NCC wrote a letter to Chairman of EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri clarifying that "the company had been over-billed during the periods in question to the tune of N298 million. For example, Mobitel had actually been invoiced in respect of operations in areas like Abuja and Rivers state when it had not rolled out. Thus in reality the 'waiver' was in reality abatement conceded in recognition of this error."
A senior official in the agency told Daily Trust that NCC on its part "is now claiming that the money was not a waiver but a discount granted to the company.
Mr. Salako paid N48m out of the said sum and promised to refund the remaining balance last week Thursday but has failed to do so. It is for this reason that we are still detaining him."
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