KATSINA-ALU VS. SALAMI: MTN DISOWNS CALL-LOG

A telecommunications service provider, MTN Communications Nigeria Limited, on Thursday in Abuja told the Justice Umaru Abdullahi panel investigating the face-off between the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu, and Appeal Court President, Justice Ayo Salami, that the contentious call log before the panel did not emanate from it.

MTN said it was duty bound to protect its customer's confidentiality.

Giving his testimony at the panel, the company's Senior Manager (Corporate Legal Services), Mr. Rotimi Odusola, said he could not confirm the authenticity of the contentious call log which was tendered by the petitioners.

The Justice Umaru Abdullahi panel had been charged with the responsibility of investigating an alleged perversion of justice leveled against the CJN and the alleged unethical behaviour of the as well as other Justices of the Court of Appeal who sat on both Osun and Ekiti governorship appeal panels.

The PCA and the other justices of the court of appeal were said to have engaged in telephone conversations which eventually resulted in the tribunal sacking ex-governors Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Segun Oni of Osun and Ekiti states respectively for which they were replaced by Rauf Aregbesola and Kayode Fayemi.

The call logs were supplied by the petitioners but the PCA said they were mere fabrication.

The MTN officer explained that the telecommunications company, as a policy, only provided such Call Data Records otherwise known as the call logs to only three categories of persons under a covering letter requesting for them.

They are a competent court; the law enforcement agencies and the subscriber that can establish that he is the owner of the line.

Odusola said the contentious CDR did not emanate from MTN, adding that the firm never used the paper on which it was printed.

Meanwhile, the panel has adjourned its sitting to enable the parties to file their final written addresses.