Nigeria will enforce a Dec. 31 deadline for MTN Group Ltd. to pay a $3.9 billion fine even after Africa’s biggest wireless operator said it would challenge the penalty in a Lagos court, according to a spokesman for the communications ministry.
“MTN has the right to seek the court’s interpretation if it feels unsatisfied with the action of the regulator but nothing would stop the government action on the fine,” Victor Oluwadamilare, the spokesman for Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu, said in an e-mailed response to questions on Tuesday. Nigeria won’t consider an extension to the deadline, he said.
MTN said Dec. 17 it will ask the court to rule on the fine, saying that the penalty wasn’t within the powers of the country’s telecommunications regulator to impose. The Johannesburg-based company’s shares have declined 26% since the fine was made public almost two months ago. They gained 4.5% to R141.16 by the close in the city, valuing the company at R261 billion ($17.1 billion).
The Nigerian communications regulator imposed the penalty on MTN for failing to meet a deadline to disconnect 5.1 million unregistered subscribers as security agencies seek to fight crime in a country with poor identity records. The initial fine of $5.2 billion was reduced by 25% earlier this month following talks with the regulator led by MTN Chairman Phuthuma Nhleko. MTN has said it continues to engage with the Nigerian authorities even as it seeks a resolution in court.
Oluwadamilare declined to comment on what will happen if MTN misses the deadline, although Lagos-based newspaper Vanguard cited Communications Minister Shittu as saying another fine could be imposed. MTN spokesman Chris Maroleng didn’t immediately return a phone call or text message seeking comment.
Bloomberg
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Nigerian military killed hundreds of Shiites in raid according to Human Rights Watch
Nigerian soldiers fired on unarmed Islamic Shiite children with no provocation in raids that killed hundreds of the minority group in the West African nation, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
The charges come as the guardian of Nigeria's estimated 80 million-plus Muslims, Sultan Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar of Sokoto, warned the government against actions that could further radicalize Muslims in a country that already has lost 20,000 lives to the Boko Haram Islamic uprising.
Human Rights Watch said it doubts the Nigerian military's version that raids over three days on three Shiite locations in northern Zaria town followed an attempted assassination of the army chief.
Nigeria's military said the raids Dec. 12 through Dec. 14 came after Shiites tried to block the convoy of Gen. Tukur Buratai.
"It is almost impossible to see how a roadblock by angry young men could justify the killings of hundreds of people. At best it was a brutal overreaction and at worst it was a planned attack on the minority Shia group," said the Africa director of Human Rights Watch, Daniel Bekele.
The New York-based group said the army's version "just doesn't stack up."
As many as 1,000 people may have been killed, rights activists say, sparking protests in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north that spread to Tehran, the Iranian capital, and New Delhi in India.
Witnesses at the Husainniyah spiritual center said dozens of soldiers took up positions by the mosque at around midday on December 12, 2015, at least an hour before the army chief of staff was due to pass by, according to Human Rights Watch. Video footage shot by sect members and posted on YouTube appears to show soldiers calmly setting up before the shootings began.
Without provocation, the soldiers fired on people coming out of the mosque, initially killing five people and injuring others, including children attending classes at the center, according to Human Rights Watch, which said it interviewed many witnesses separately at locations in Kaduna and Zaria, on December 17 and 18.
A 14-year-old girl attending a math class in the mosque complex said that she was shot as she walked out of the center with other children, according to Human Rights Watch.
The Shiite group's leader, Iran-influenced Ibraheem Zakzaky who dresses like an ayatollah, suffered four bullet wounds, according to the family doctor, and is among scores detained.
Shiites wounded in the attacks are dying in military and police detention because they are being denied medical care, the Shiite Islamic Movement in Nigeria said Tuesday.
Kaduna state police Wednesday released 83 people including 34 children arrested in "the Zaria clash," according to Samuel Aruwan, spokesman for Gov. Nasir El-Rufai.
Another 191 suspects have been charged with offences including obstruction of highways, possession of weapons and attacking security agents, he said.
Ibrahim Musa, a spokesman for the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, charged Kaduna state government has taken over from the military in destroying property of the movement, estimated to have 3 million followers. A school and cemetery were bulldozed Monday, he said.
The leader of Nigeria's Muslims warned against violence targeting peaceful Muslims. "The history of the circumstances that engendered the outbreak of militant insurgency in the past, with cataclysmic consequences that Nigeria is yet to recover from, should not be allowed to repeat itself," Abubakar, president of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, said Monday.
Boko Haram re-emerged as a much more violent entity after security forces attacked their mosque and compound and killed about 700 people in 2009 including leader Mohammed Yusuf, a breakaway follower of Zakzaky.
ABC
The charges come as the guardian of Nigeria's estimated 80 million-plus Muslims, Sultan Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar of Sokoto, warned the government against actions that could further radicalize Muslims in a country that already has lost 20,000 lives to the Boko Haram Islamic uprising.
Human Rights Watch said it doubts the Nigerian military's version that raids over three days on three Shiite locations in northern Zaria town followed an attempted assassination of the army chief.
Nigeria's military said the raids Dec. 12 through Dec. 14 came after Shiites tried to block the convoy of Gen. Tukur Buratai.
"It is almost impossible to see how a roadblock by angry young men could justify the killings of hundreds of people. At best it was a brutal overreaction and at worst it was a planned attack on the minority Shia group," said the Africa director of Human Rights Watch, Daniel Bekele.
The New York-based group said the army's version "just doesn't stack up."
As many as 1,000 people may have been killed, rights activists say, sparking protests in Nigeria's mainly Muslim north that spread to Tehran, the Iranian capital, and New Delhi in India.
Witnesses at the Husainniyah spiritual center said dozens of soldiers took up positions by the mosque at around midday on December 12, 2015, at least an hour before the army chief of staff was due to pass by, according to Human Rights Watch. Video footage shot by sect members and posted on YouTube appears to show soldiers calmly setting up before the shootings began.
Without provocation, the soldiers fired on people coming out of the mosque, initially killing five people and injuring others, including children attending classes at the center, according to Human Rights Watch, which said it interviewed many witnesses separately at locations in Kaduna and Zaria, on December 17 and 18.
A 14-year-old girl attending a math class in the mosque complex said that she was shot as she walked out of the center with other children, according to Human Rights Watch.
The Shiite group's leader, Iran-influenced Ibraheem Zakzaky who dresses like an ayatollah, suffered four bullet wounds, according to the family doctor, and is among scores detained.
Shiites wounded in the attacks are dying in military and police detention because they are being denied medical care, the Shiite Islamic Movement in Nigeria said Tuesday.
Kaduna state police Wednesday released 83 people including 34 children arrested in "the Zaria clash," according to Samuel Aruwan, spokesman for Gov. Nasir El-Rufai.
Another 191 suspects have been charged with offences including obstruction of highways, possession of weapons and attacking security agents, he said.
Ibrahim Musa, a spokesman for the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, charged Kaduna state government has taken over from the military in destroying property of the movement, estimated to have 3 million followers. A school and cemetery were bulldozed Monday, he said.
The leader of Nigeria's Muslims warned against violence targeting peaceful Muslims. "The history of the circumstances that engendered the outbreak of militant insurgency in the past, with cataclysmic consequences that Nigeria is yet to recover from, should not be allowed to repeat itself," Abubakar, president of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, said Monday.
Boko Haram re-emerged as a much more violent entity after security forces attacked their mosque and compound and killed about 700 people in 2009 including leader Mohammed Yusuf, a breakaway follower of Zakzaky.
ABC
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Video - Fishermen in Nigeria losing livelihood
For generations, fishing and river transportation have been the key economic drivers of the central Nigerian town of Lokoja.
But those sources of income are drying up fast.
Video - Nigeria to invest $25 million in development
Authorities in Nigeria are working towards decongesting major cities by completing half-built roads and bridges. But this has done little to ease the manic in the short term. Most commuters in Lagos have to leave their homes at the crack of dawn in order to get to work on time.
Nigeria bans use of its credit cards overseas
Nigeria's central bank has ordered commercial banks to stop customers from using their debit and credit cards abroad, a source has told the BBC.
One bank has emailed customers to this effect, stressing it is a "temporary measure".
Access to foreign online retailers will also be affected when the ban takes effect on 1 January 2016.
It is part of the government's effort to try to stem the flow of foreign exchange out of the country.
The unofficial value of the Nigerian currency, the naira, has plunged because of the fall in the oil price - its main export.
Africa's largest economy has spent billions of dollars propping up the currency since it fixed the exchange rate in February and tightened trading rules to curb speculation.
It is not clear how many people will be affected by the latest measure but the BBC's Bashir Sa'ad Abdullahi in the capital, Abuja, says wealthy Nigerians travel abroad regularly and use their local cards for shopping and other transactions.
Some top-end shops in London have signs in Hausa to cater for the large number of Nigerian customers.
One of the banks, Standard Chartered, has emailed its customers notifying them of the ban.
n June, the central bank banned businesses from accessing hard currency to import about 40 items.
The list included Indian incense, plastic and rubber products, soap and even private jets.
The amount that Nigerians could spend on credit cards abroad has already been reduced by the banks.
BBC
One bank has emailed customers to this effect, stressing it is a "temporary measure".
Access to foreign online retailers will also be affected when the ban takes effect on 1 January 2016.
It is part of the government's effort to try to stem the flow of foreign exchange out of the country.
The unofficial value of the Nigerian currency, the naira, has plunged because of the fall in the oil price - its main export.
Africa's largest economy has spent billions of dollars propping up the currency since it fixed the exchange rate in February and tightened trading rules to curb speculation.
It is not clear how many people will be affected by the latest measure but the BBC's Bashir Sa'ad Abdullahi in the capital, Abuja, says wealthy Nigerians travel abroad regularly and use their local cards for shopping and other transactions.
Some top-end shops in London have signs in Hausa to cater for the large number of Nigerian customers.
One of the banks, Standard Chartered, has emailed its customers notifying them of the ban.
n June, the central bank banned businesses from accessing hard currency to import about 40 items.
The list included Indian incense, plastic and rubber products, soap and even private jets.
The amount that Nigerians could spend on credit cards abroad has already been reduced by the banks.
BBC
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