Telecom firms sue National Assembly over incessant summo

Telecoms companies under the auspices of the Association of Licensed
Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria have dragged the National
Assembly to court over its incessant summons of their chief executive
officers .
The companies , which filed a legal action at the Federal High Court
in Abuja , also demanded an explanation on the specific nature of
information , which the National Assembly could lawfully request from
private companies.
The association also sought to know the extent of the National
Assembly ' s oversight functions over private companies, particularly
telecommunications firms , and the specific nature of directives that
could be made by it pursuant to the outcome of its investigative
activities .
Other prayers by ALTON include a declaration on the proprietary of the
National Assembly to issue the summons and insist that its members
were represented by their CEOs and not senior management officials,
whose job functions deal with the subject matters of investigation .
The association also asked for an order restraining the parliament
from serving any further summons on telecommunication companies
pending the determination of the suit.
While addressing journalists in Lagos on Sunday , the ALTON Chairman,
Gbenga Adebayo , stated that the judicial move became necessary as
telecom firms ' CEOs had become inundated with incessant summons from
different committees of the National Assembly to appear before them .
He noted that the insistence on the attendance of the CEOs at such
sessions without considering that other senior management members of
staff might be better versed and suited to answer whatever queries the
lawmakers had had negatively impacted on the ability of the executives
to focus on their business operations.
Adebayo observed that part of the requested information bordered on
information within the purview of specific government agencies , which
the parliament could easily request the agencies to provide.
Such information , according to him , involves evidence of tax
remittances to the government since the commencement of members'
operations, or confidential information which members should not be
obliged to provide , such as the list of all employees and their
current remuneration packages.
Adebayo said , "We have the regulator , which is the Nigerian
Communications Commission, established by the Act of parliament, and
we have the Ministry of Communications, which oversees the industry on
behalf of the Presidency . We are private companies and the funds we
administer in our organisation are not appropriated by the Federal
Government . It is out of place to receive an invitation from the
parliament to come and explain funds related to OPEX or CAPEX .
" It is out of place for the parliament to ask us to explain details
of our payroll and why we pay workers what we pay them . It is also
out of place for the parliament to ask us to bring a list of taxes we
have paid when there is the Federal Inland Revenue Service , an agency
of government charged with tax collection ."