A public interest lawyer, Barrister Ezugwu Emmanuel Anene, has just won a court case in the Court of Appeal in Abuja against telecom giant MTN Nigeria.
Anene was awarded the sum of N15 million for damages resulting from unsolicited calls and messages from MTN at odd hours without his consent or his subscribing to them. The judgment was delivered on Friday by Justice Okoro Abang of the Court of Appeal.
However, this case has been dragged from 2021 in the High Court of the FCT, delivered by Justice U.P. Kekemeke on September 22, 2021. The high court awarded N300,000 in damages against MTN in favour of Anene, but he was dissatisfied with the decision.
He initially sought N200 million in damages from MTN for the unsolicited calls and messages, which he claimed caused him anxiety and a breach of his privacy.
The public interest lawyer said, “The MTN inundated him with a large volume of messages and deducted money from his airtime for unsolicited services from July 2016 to March 21, 2018, at inappropriate hours.”
MTN responded back to the claims through its respondents and staff member, Emmanuel Iteade. He said, “All services complained about by the claimant were subscribed to by him, and the defendant merely debited him for the services.”
The High Court awarded N300,000 to Anene, but he wasn’t satisfied with the decision and went to the Appeal Court instead.
Justice Okoro of the Appeal Court agreed with Barrister Anene’s demands and said, “If MTN had sent unsolicited messages to 10 million phones at the time, owned by innocent Nigerians, it would have unlawfully enriched itself” to over a trillion naira.
Furthermore, the judge stated, “In all, I award N15 million in damages in favour of the appellant and against MTN. The appeal succeeds and is allowed.”
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