The Senate on Tuesday began a probe into
the allegation that the MTN Nigeria had repatriated $13.9bn from
Nigeria to other countries between 2006 and now.
A member of the Senate representing
Kogi-West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye, while moving a motion based
on the ‘Unscrupulous Violation of the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and
Miscellaneous) Act’, alleged that MTN illegally repatriated the amount
out of the country through its bankers.
The bankers, according to him, are
Stanbic IBTC, which allegedly helped the firm to transfer $4.87bn;
Standard Chartered Bank, $5.72bn; Citi Bank, $2.98bn; and Diamond Bank,
$0.35bn.
The lawmaker stated that he had
documentary evidences to back his claims, some of which he brought to
the floor of the chamber and said would be made available for
investigation.
He said, “The Senate observes that MTN
did not request for the Certificate of Capital Importation from its
bankers, Standard Chartered Bank, within the regulatory period of 24
hours of the inflow. The Senate observes also that the CBN was not
notified of this inflow by Standard Chartered Bank within 48 hours of
receipt and conversion of the proceeds to naira as required by
regulation.
“It further observes that the sum of
$117,683,987bn was also brought in by MTN between 2001 and 2003 in three
different tranches. It is concerned that since inception, MTN had
sought the collaboration of influential and unpatriotic Nigerians to
assist them in looting our external reserves.”
The Nigerians, Melaye added, included a
serving minister, who he said MTN allegedly used in moving $13.92bn out
of Nigeria, which was over 50 per cent of the country’s external
reserves, to floated and incorporated offshore Special Purpose Vehicles
in the Cayman Island, Mauritius and British Virgin Island.
The senator listed the names of the
SPVs, their promoters/shareholders and their share loan between MTN
South Africa as: Cel Telephone Investment Limited, Port Louis,
Mauritius; Dr. Pascal Dozie and Dr. Okechuckwu Elenemah; $20,749,532;
Celtel funded shares SPV (which was renamed NISPV Limited in 2008), Port
Louis, Mauritius; Dr. Pascal Dozie, Ahmed Dasuki, Gbenga Oyebode,
Babatunde Folawiyo and Dr. Okechukwu Elenemah, $2,019,232.
Others are Mobile Communication
Investment Limited, Port Louis, Mauritius; Mohammed Sanni Bello;
$3,862,985; Mobile Communication Holdings, Port Louis, Mauritius;
Mohammed Sanni Bello; $3,454,102; Hermitage Overseas Corporation
Limited; Victor Odili; $10,273,986; SASPV Limited and Ahmed Dasuki,
$10,058,991.
The list also includes NCell Limited,
Geneva Water Front Drive, British Virgin Island; Gbenga Oyebode,
$4,512,593; Universal Communication Limited, Barkly House, George Town,
Cayman Island; and Babatunde Folawiyo, $5,534,941.
The President of the Senate, Senator
Bukola Saraki, noted that the allegations raised by Melaye were serious
and required thorough investigation as the issues could not be ignored.
The lawmakers subsequently voted that
the Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions
should carry out “a holistic investigation” into the matter and report
back to the Senate.
The committee was given two weeks to carry out the task.
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