The sum of ₦500 million is expected to be paid by the federal government as legal fees to the lawyers that worked for the government on the MTN Nigeria fine.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami revealed that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the payment of the legal fees.
The minister said that the government had to seek legal service following an action instituted by MTN Nigeria to constrain the federal government from making recovery of the initial fine of ₦1.04 trillion.
The fine which was imposed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for failing to deactivate improperly and pre-registered SIM cards on its network.
Proving that the legal fee is worth it, Malami said the team of solicitors and lawyers worked in the spirit of ensuring the success of the case as well as recovering the reduced amount of the fine in favour of the government.
He further stated that the ₦500 million is less than 1% of the reduced fine which is not up to the requirement for international practices of about 5% as legal fees.
The telecommunications regulatory body recently revealed that MTN Nigeria has been complying with the payment agreement reached in 2015, with the last payment expected to be made by May 31, 2019.
