Federal Government denies out-of-court settlement with MTN

Fielding question from journalists yesterday in Abuja during a world press conference, the Minister of Communications Technology, Adebayo Shittu, said that there could be no out-of-court settlement as earlier reported except MTN withdraws the case from the court. He said,

“The case is in court, it was MTN that dragged the Federal Government to court. I am not aware of any out-of-court settlement, as issues like this are very sensitive. As far as we are concerned, there can be no out-of-court settlement except they withdraw the case from the court so that government will not be put under any pressure whatsoever. If the case is out-of-court, the President will take a decision but for now, I am not aware of any out-of-court settlement.”

As interesting as the saga continues to get, somewhere deep in our minds, we hoped the out of court settlement was going to be the last we would hear about it, but apparently with the Minister’s denial, it has become a different ball game entirely as the tussle continues.

With our popcorn in clutch, we would just watch and see the interesting turn this battle between the NCC and MTN Nigeria takes. Not forgetting that MTN was recently fined $160 million in Cameroon for charges related to corruption and other irregularities.