The Minister of Communications, Barrister Adebayo Shittu, yesterday said MTN must pay a certain amount of money before an out of court of settlement with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over the N780 billion fine slammed on it.
Barrister Shittu said at a media parley in Lagos that the federal government would not give any attention until the demand was met.
He said when MTN was fined, it acknowledged the registration default and pleaded for leniency.
According to him, President Muhammad Bubari had in his magnanimity reduced the fine from N1.04 trillion to N780 billion.
He said: “When MTN came, we understood their plea. However, we added that if you cannot meet up with the fine, you have to add your account details to show that upon paying your company will collapse, they were yet to respond to that. The next thing was for me to get a call that they were going to court. And now, they are coming back for out of court settlement. We don’t want MTN to die, rather, we want them to obey the law.”
A court in Lagos gave MTN till March 18, 2016 to settle out of court with the NCC.