The Federal High Court in Lagos has dismissed a N3 billion rights enforcement suit filed by telecoms firm, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, against the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami.
Justice C.J. Aneke dismissed the suit on Thursday after being told that Malami had withdrawn the demand letter from MTN.
The telecoms giant had filed the suit to challenge an August 20, 2018 letter written to it by the AGF, demanding $2 billion in alleged unremitted tax.
The AGF’s counsel, Habibat Ajana, had drawn the judge’s attention to a January 8, 2020 letter by the AGF to MTN, wherein the Chief Law Officer said he had reviewed the issue and had decided to withdraw the demand letter for $2 billion tax.
MTN’s lead counsel, Wole Olanipekun, said having withdrawn the demand letter, his client would drop its case against the AGF.
Olanipekun had argued that in writing the demand letter to MTN, Malami acted beyond his powers and violated the provisions of Section 36 of the constitution on fair hearing with “the purported revenue assets investigation” he carried out on the firm’s activities covering 2007 to 2017.
