MTN Nigeria Communications Limited has confirmed that the call logs, which were rejected by the Special Investigative Panel set up by the National Judicial Council (NJC), were genuine and generated by it.The panel, whichwas chaired by former President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Umaru Abdullahi, had rejected the call logs supplied by former governors Olagunsoye Oyinlola of Osun and Segun Oni of Ekiti on the premise that its authenticity was suspect, a decision that helped in exonerating suspended President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Isa Salami and other justices, who were being investigated.Oyinlola and the state chapters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had insisted that the call logs were tampered with and subsequently instituted a suit against the telecommunications firm seeking N150 billion damages and revocation of its licence.But in a statement of defence to the suit filed by the telecommunication outfit, it admitted that the call logs from the Nigeria Force Area G Command Headquarters, Ogba, which the petitioners presented to the panel as exhibit and rejected by the panel, were from it. In paragraph 8, the firm claimed, ''in response to paragraph 22-23 of the Statement of Claim, the first defendant (MTN) states that it always co-operates with security agencies and accedes to their legitimate requests while adhering to its rigid procedures to ensure its customer confidentiality regime is not compromised or prejudiced and also within the confines of its capacity and storage constraints. It was consequent to this that the first defendant upon request for call data records from Nigeria Police Force Area G Command Headquarters, Ogba, forwarded the CDRs to the Command.''''In the response taken out on its behalf by the chambers of the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abdullahi Ibrahim (SAN), MTN said it could only provide data covering three months.''The first defendant (MTN) duly honoured the request in line with its policies and capacity constraint, which limits the period within which CDRs can be stored on the first defendant''s network to three months by releasing the CDRs for the period December 2010 to February 2011 to the law enforcement agencies,' it stated.It added that ''the first defendant as earlier stated received a request from NJC vide a letter dated April 14, 2011 for the release of CDRs of some of the first defendant''s subscriber numbers for the period September 2010 to January 2011. The first defendant could not honour the request of the NJC because of its obligation to respect the confidentiality of its subscribers and therefore being only able to release such information to the actual subscriber of a specific mobile telephone line upon request, law enforcement agencies or upon a Court order.''''However in the response being filed by the plaintiffs to MTN''s defence, it is being contended that while the call data released to the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) by MTN covered only three months, the data released to the Area G Command covered the required five months. The Abdullahi panel had used the data covering three months (incomplete as they were)from the office of NSA, SSS and the Policeto absolve Salami and other probed jurists, saying that the data was not comprehensive enough to indict them for any unethical communication with parties in Osun and Ekiti governorship appeals.Oyinlola and PDP are contending that the call data of the months deliberately left out in what was given to the NSA would have made all the difference in reaching a different conclusion by the NJC''s panel.According to the plaintiffs, ''the first defendant''s storage capacity is not limited to three months. The call data records the first defendant released to Area G Command, Ogba, covered the period between September 1, 2010 and January 31, 2011 (5 calendar months). We shall also be calling the Area Commander, Area F Command, Ikeja, Lagos to tender the call data records of a certain Sunday Awobiye, which spanned a period of six (6) calendar months.The said call logs were released also by the first defendant.''These buttress the Plaintiffs'' assertion of the first defendant''s inconsistent, fraudulent and manipulative tendencies,the 1st call data record released to Adeolu Oyinlola by the first defendant on Augus 4, 2011 (already pleaded) covered only a period of one month, while the 2nd call data record released by the same first defendant to the self-same Adeolu Oyinlola on March 21, 2012 covered three months.
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