Justice Ibarhim Buba of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, has thrown out the lawsuit filed by Etisalat against MTN Nigeria and Visafone over the acquisition of the code division multiple access (CDMA) operator.
A few weeks ago, Etisalat brought a legal action against MTN and Visafone, challenging MTN’s use of the 800MHZ spectrum following the acquisition of Visafone.
The company then released a statement saying, “the action was considered necessary to prevent the use of the spectrum by MTN at this time, as it will allow the deployment of broadband services ahead of its competitors and entrench the dominance of MTN in the retail data services market.”
However, the court, yesterday delivered its ruling in respect of MTN’s and Visafone’s notice of preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court to adjudicate on the matter.
In its ruling, the court upheld the defendants’ argument, as canvassed by Niyi Adegbonmire, (MTN’s and Visafone’s counsel) and struck out the matter on the following grounds:
Etisalat failed to fulfil condition precedent as required by the Nigerian Communications Act, as Etisalat failed to exhaust the judicial review process as mandated by law. Specifically, the court considered Etisalat’s action as an attempt to circumvent the judicial review process.
Etisalat’s complaint was hinged on the administrative powers of the Nigerian Communications Commission who had already approved the transaction between MTN and Visafone and as such, both Visafone and MTN were not relevant parties to the suit.
That the suit, as filed by Etisalat, was incurably bad and could not be remedied.
