Court Orders APC, Buhari Be Paid N5oom By MTN, Etisalat, Others [READ MORE]

Good news for the All progressive Congress Party (APC), as a Federal High Court has ordered the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to pay 500 million naira in damages.

APC To Receive N500m Following Court Ruling

Nigerian Communications Commission logo. The NCC will pay APC N500m in damages

The Federal High Court in Lagos, which was presided over by Justice Ibrahim Buba, ruled that the NCC and five other organisations, Etisalat, MTN Nigeria Limited, Globacom Limited, Airtel Nigeria Limited and Visafone Communications Limited, must pay 500 million naira for unlawfully banning the party’s presidential campaign fundraising platform.

According to PM News, Justice Buba declared that the APC was protected by the constitution to push for the enforcement of its fundamental right. He threw out the NCC’s counter-affidavit and ruled that the actions of respondents were illegal and unconstitutional.

The damages were to be paid jointly and severally by all the respondents, the Judge ruled.

The political party had sued the commission, demanding N25 billion in damages, for allegedly banning its presidential campaign fund-raising platform.

The APC accused the NCC of instructing the 2nd to 6th respondents to discontinue an SMS platform it created for the purpose of getting donations from willing members of the public for its presidential campaign. The party claimed to have initiated the participatory fund-raising platform as a way of getting members of the general public to contribute N100 to its presidential campaign fund each time they sent ‘APC’ as an SMS to 35350.

But it claimed that the NCC, by a letter dated January 19, 2015, instructed the other respondents to shut down the platform, warning them “to avoid running political advertisement/promotions that will portray them as being partisan.”

The commission had also threatened to sanction any of the telecommunications service providers which failed to comply with the order.

But the APC considered the NCC’s instruction and the consequent shutting down of its fund-raising platform as both discriminatory and an infringement of its fundamental right protected by Section 39 of the Constitution and Articles 9 (1) (2) and 19 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap. A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

It argued that the NCC did not give the same instruction to the other respondents when the Peoples Democratic Party set up the short codes designated: 6661, 662, 6663 and 6664, being managed by one Wagitel Communications Limited to raise funds for the campaign of President Goodluck Jonathan and his vice president, Namadi Sambo, in 2010.

Meanwhile, another  Federal High Court hearing in Abuja has adjourned all the suits challenging the eligibility of the presidential candidate of the APC, Maj Gen Muhammadu Buhari.