MTN Nigeria hit with R8.6m lawsuit

MTN Nigeria Communications Limited has been slapped with a 200 million naira (R8.6m) lawsuit for allegedly giving mobile line numbers to a third party.

A UK-based Nigerian lawyer, Bennett Igbani, whose lawyer Festus Keyamo filed the action before a Federal High Court in Lagos, claimed his MTN line was hacked into by an unidentified person.

In an amended statement of the claim, Igbani claimed he had been using his SIM card number for over eight years.

He also claimed that during the compulsory card registration exercise mandated by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), he personally registered his SIM card with MTN Nigeria Communications Limited and had been using it exclusively without any interference from anybody until October, 2014.

Igbani, a PhD law student in the UK, said he roamed his line when he travelled to where he is studying. But three days after he arrived in the UK the line became inoperative. A few days later, he observed that his e-mail address was being accessed from Nigeria, as his e-mail account had been hacked into by a third party using his MTN number.

Igbani alleged further that his account officer at Sterling Bank Plc called to inform him that a Mrs Nora, claiming to be his younger sister, called her with his MTN number and requested that the sum of N5m from his bank account be released to them because Igbani required urgent medical attention overseas.

The lawyer, however, stated that he was neither ill nor has a sister named Nora. He added that he was scared, as his MTN line is linked to all his six bank accounts, as well as his e-mail account and social media.

After the attempted fraud on his account, he petitioned the Nigerian police, stating that his number was reclaimed by a third party through MTN and the third party had access to his PhD thesis and deleted vital documents, causing a serious setback in his academic pursuits.

On his return to Nigeria, he went to the MTN office in Lagos to lay a complaint. He said it was confirmed his MTN line was reclaimed by a Ndubisi Daniel on October 7, 2014.

He asked for the particulars of the person who reclaimed his number but the company refused to disclose them. He said the action of the company was fraudulent.

Igbani is seekingN200m in damages. The case has been adjourned until September 23.