Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday struck out the N3 billion fundamental rights enforcement suit filed by telecommunications firm, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, against Abubakar Malami (SAN), attorney general of the federation (AGF) and minister of Justice.
Uto Ukpanah, company secretary, MTN Nigeria, also confirmed in a statement that it has Nigeria to formally discontinued its legal action against the AGF, following,the decision of the AGF to refer the matter to the relevant regulatory authorities.
MTN had filed the suit to challenge an August 20, 2018 letter written to it by the AGF, demanding $2 billion in alleged unremitted tax.
But Justice C.J. Aneke struck out the suit on Thursday after being told that the AGF had withdrawn the demand letter from MTN.
Habibat Ajana, counsel for the AGF, had pointed 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 $2bn tax.
Wole Olanipekun, SAN, MTN’s lead counsel, said having withdrawn the demand letter, his client would drop its case against the AGF.
Consequently, Justice Aneke struck out the suit.