The prolonged claims and counter charges surrounding Transcorp activities in Nitel, the premier national carrier and Mtel, its mobile arm took a new twist at the weekend with the federal government accusing the core investor of incompetence.
Alhaji Ibrahim Nakande, minister of state for Information and Communications exclusively told CommunicationsWeek that the claim by Mr. Tom Iseghohi, group managing director, Transcorp, that it is not given free hands to run the moribund national telecommunications carrier was untrue describing it as ‘Transcorp survival mission’
Iseghohi, had at an interactive session with newsmen blamed government interference for his company delay in turning around Nitel.
He claimed that Transcorp is technically and financially equipped to revive the national carrier.
Transcorp position showed that government which is part owner of Nitel has not shown commitment to reviving the company going by policy statements it has issued that did not portend the true position of things with the company and its effort to turn Nitel around.
Nakande however, said that Transcorp has failed in every aspect of the share purchase agreement in 18 months it had control of Nitel.
But contrary to government claim that she persuaded owner of Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (Nitel), Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) to look for core investor that will bring money and technical capability in turning the fortune of the moribund national carrier around, Iseghohi, said that it was actually Transcorp that made the proposal for a new technical partner.
