MTN, Airtel, Glo Sue the House of Reps Over Telco Probe

Nigeria's telecom operators have taken their standoff with the House of Representatives to court. The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), MTN Nigeria, Airtel Networks, Globacom and Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services, which runs 9mobile, filed an originating summons at the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday, 4 November, TechCrier reports from the filing. The suit, numbered FHC/ABJ/CS/2713/2026, names the House of Representatives, its Speaker, the Clerk of the National Assembly and the Inspector-General of Police as defendants.

It is the first time the operators' legal challenge has been set out in a court filing. On Wednesday ALTON's officials told lawmakers only that proceedings had started, and TheStak's report on that hearing noted that no court order had been shown to the committee.

What the operators are asking

According to TechCrier's reading of the summons, the operators want the court to interpret Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution and to decide:

• whether the House has the power to investigate privately owned telecom companies over service quality;
• whether Section 88 limits such probes to lawmaking and to exposing corruption, inefficiency or waste in running laws or spending public funds, which private operators do not do;
• whether the House can issue arrest warrants to force the operators' chief executives to appear;
• whether the summonses already issued fall within the House's powers.

The operators also argue that the Nigerian Communications Commission, under the Nigerian Communications Act 2003 and its 2024 Quality of Service Regulations, is the body responsible for network standards. TechCrier says the court has not yet ruled, and no hearing date has been reported.

Related · InnovationReps Eject ALTON as Telco CEOs Skip Hearing AgainMTN, Airtel, Glo and T2 Mobile's chiefs stayed away on 4 November. Lawmakers threw out the operators' body and gave the CEOs one more week.

The detention order

The filing came on the day relations broke down at the hearing. The CEOs of MTN, Airtel, Globacom and Mafab stayed away for a second time and sent ALTON instead. Sunday Umeha, who presided for the committee's chairman Olumide Osoba, told ALTON to "follow your case and not disrupt the work of the Committee" and ordered security personnel to detain its representatives, ThisDay reports. Neusroom reports the same order and quotes one of the delegation asking, "Are you detaining us? What is our offence?"

Other accounts of the session describe a warning rather than an order: Technext reports that Umeha told ALTON to walk out and warned that further uninvited appearances could lead to detention. None of the reports says anyone was actually held.

ALTON chairman Gbenga Adebayo argues that shutting the industry body out undermines work on the problems operators blame for poor service: vandalism, power shortages, rising diesel costs and multiple taxation, according to ThisDay.

What happens next

The House says the lawsuit does not halt its investigation on its own, since no restraining order has been presented, and that the existence of a sector regulator does not remove the National Assembly's oversight duties, TechCrier reports. The committee adjourned to Wednesday, 11 November, when it expects the chief executives in person, after earlier threatening arrest warrants for those who stay away.