NJC Probe: Group berates MTN over refusal to release Call Logs
The Society for Rule of Law in Nigeria (SRLN) a non-governmental organization has berated the MTN for refusing to make the call records of Court of Appeal President, Justice Isa Ayo Salami and other justices of the appellate court being investigated by the Probe Panel set up by National Judicial Council (NJC) to investigate allegations of unethical behaviours against the appeal court justices, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) lawyers and some chieftains of the party.
The group accused the telecoms company of turning itself into “a cog in the wheels of justice” saying; “MTN cannot claim to have inferior Call Detail Records (CDR) keeping technology than those of Airtel, Globacom and Etisalat that have made available all the call logs requested by the NJC probe panel.”
Reacting to newspaper report on the refusal of MTN to make the call logs available to the probe panel as requested, SRLN said in a
statement issued in Abuja by its Coordinator, Comrade Chima Ubeku
that; “it was unable to store CDRs for more than three months due to certain technical limitations on its systems is to say the least suspicious.”
“Is MTN saying that its facilities are so inferior that if let us assume suspected coup plotters were found to have used its network to communicate, security agencies will not be able to get records of their discussions? “Isn't that ridiculous,” SRLN queried.
The group called on all lovers of justice in the country to prevail on the MTN to produce the call logs as requested by the NJC panel, adding that; “What is at stake is the integrity of our justice system and by extension the nation as a whole, and no individual or corporate organisation operating in Nigeria must be allowed to hold us to ransom.”
While urging the probe panel not to be deterred by the MTN unpatriotic antics, the group said; “The good thing about all these is that the panel already has the call logs. And in the evidence act, secondary evidence, which is the one already supplied by the petitioners are admissible and justifiable in the absence of primary evidence, which MTN has refused to produce.”
The group commended Globacom, Etisalat and Airtel for heeding the NJC panel's request, an act it described as “patriotic and a show of understanding for the yearnings of Nigerians for a credible justice system.”