By Emman Ovuakporie & Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA— THE House of Representatives has summoned the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Alhaji Abba Kyari, over his alleged involvement in the out-of-court settlement between mobile telecommunications network, MTN, and the Federal Government.

The green  chamber, through its Committee on Telecommunications, also resolved to beam searchlights on the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, AGF, Mr Abubakar Malami, over the issue.

The committee also insisted that MTN must pay the N1. 04 trillion fine imposed by the Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC, for SIM deactivation default.

Chairman of the Committee, Saheed Akinade-Fijabi, APC,Oyo, said the fine, if paid, would redefine the relationship between telecommunications operators and the regulator.

He said the N50 billion paid by MTN as a down payment for negotiations out of court was not adequate to make up for allegedly undermining government’s efforts to tackle security challenges in the country.

According to the committee chairman, the law is there to serve as deterrent for you not to go against it.

“MTN has been trying to circumvent the process and find a way of running away from the law instead of them facing the music,’’ he said.

A member of the Committee, Johnson Agbonayinma PDP, Egor/Ikpoba Okha Federal Constituency, said MTN violated sections 19 and 20 of the Telephone Subscribers Regulations under the Communications Act 2010.

Section 19 of the Act reads: “Any licensee who fails to capture register, deregister or transmit the details of every individual or corporate subscriber to the central data base as specified in the regulation or as may be stipulated from time to time by the Commission is liable to a penalty of N200 000 for each subscription medium.’’

“Therefore MTN’s failure to deactivate 5.2million SIM cards should be liable to a fine of N2.8 trillion,” Agbonayinman said.

However, the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said  the commission was committed to ensuring compliance by telecommunication operators to register all SIM cards in the country.

“SIM card registration is a continuous process.  There is ongoing registration by all operators and NCC will do enforcement, checking to ensure compliance,” Danbatta said.

On the N50bn payment by the network, he said NCC was not in receipt of the N50 billion so far paid by MTN, adding that the money was not paid into NCC‘s account.

“I do not know the account where the money was paid into as the commission only received a letter from the Attorney-General of the Federation indicating that MTN had paid the amount into the federal government account,” Danbatta noted.