By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Telecoms giant, MTN Nigeria, has refuted a claim by one member of the Nigerian Senate, Mr Dino Melaye, that it illegally transferred $13.92 billion from Nigeria to its home country, South Africa, between 2006 and 2016 through its bankers.
The lawmaker, while moving a motion on Tuesday, had named the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Okechukwu Elenemah; Stanbic IBTC; Standard Chartered Bank; Citi Bank and Diamond Bank as accomplices.
He then called for the probe of those involved in the alleged act.
But MTN, in its reaction on Wednesday, denied the allegation, describing it as completely unfounded and without any merit.
“The allegations made against MTN are completely unfounded and without any merit,” Chief Executive of MTN Nigeria, Mr Ferdi Moolman, was quoted as saying in a statement.
It would be recalled that the GSM network provider was fined over N1 trillion by the Nigerian government, but was later reduced to N330 billion.
MTN was fined because it failed to disconnect unregistered SIM cards on its network as required by law.
Aduragbemi Omiyale