The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has debunked recent allegations that the multinational telecommunications company, MTN, bribed some officials of the commission to reduce a fine leveled against it.
Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau at the NCC, Abdullahi Maikano, who debunked the allegation while speaking to journalists at a Customers’ Town Hall Meeting in Effurun, Delta state on, said no staff of the commission had taken bribe, explaining that MTN settled a part of the fine in bulk and agreed to pay the remaining part in installments.
Maikano, who was represented by the Deputy Director of Consumer Affairs Bureau, Dr Femi Atoyebi, at the event also emphasised the essence of the customer feedback outings like the town hall meeting, noting that most of the policy changes being rolled out by the commission over time were actually drawn from reports of such events.
Responding to a question on the bribery allegation, Maikano said “no NCC official was bribed. I repeat, nobody bribed any NCC official on that MTN fine issue, quote me.
“NCC is a very responsible organisation under the able leadership of our Executive Vice Chairman, Professor Umaru Garba Danbatta. He has provided that quality leadership, which cascaded down to the least of the staff.
“No NNC staff will ever take bribe. Challenge me if you see one. That allegation is not true. You read in the papers what MTN has done; they have paid some amount and they are to pay the rest in installments. So, that case is actually settled”, he said.
On the usefulness of the customer/service providers/ agency’s interface being rendered by the town hall meeting, he said “it’s not true that NCC has not been doing anything about complaints arising from town hall meetings. We are not just here for jamborees.
“Everything that is going on here is being recorded and we will play them back. We do a comprehensive report on every outing to the management and make recommendations. Some of these policies that you see being rolled out by NCC come out from reports from meetings like this”, he said.
The high-point of the event, which was attended by customers of various networks, representatives of service provider companies, customer rights bodies and officials of the NCC, was the free interaction session, when many customers had the opportunity to air their feelings about the services some of the companies had been rendering.
