Telecoms giant, MTN Nigeria has denied media reports that its human resources and corporate service executive, Amina Oyagbola, was sacked for her role in the alleged bribing of Nigerian authorities to reduce its fine.

While denying that it paid a bribe to have the fine slashed from N1.04 trillion to N330 billion, the company said Oyagbola made the “voluntary decision to resign after serving MTN for 12 years as the longest serving director”..

The telecom giant made the clarification in a statement released on Friday.

The statement reads in full:

Our attention has been drawn to a report published on December 23, 2016 by an online website – about our retiring Human Resources and Corporate Service Executive, Amina Oyagbola.

To be clear, we state without equivocation that the story is untrue, malicious, defamatory, with the goal of damaging our hard-earned reputation, as well as that of our highly respected executive, Amina Oyagbola, who has served our company for 12 meritorious years.

To address the issues raised in the article:

– As we have stated at various times in the past, we categorically deny the accusation that MTN (or its employees) offered a bribe to a government official over the NCC fine.

– Secondly, there is absolutely no truth to the accusation that Mrs Amina Oyagbola who is our Human Resources and Corporate Services Executive was fired. She made the voluntary decision to resign after serving MTN for 12 years as the longest serving Executive, during this period she also served as a Director on the boards of the MTN Nigeria Foundation, MTN Benin and Visafone.

Amina has made the decision to take a well-deserved break after almost 30 years of providing her leadership skills and expertise to various multinational organisations in corporate Nigeria. 

In conclusion, we would like to reassure our customers and stakeholders in the public and private sector that MTN continues to subscribe to the highest ethical standards in all its activities.We take great pains to ensure that we do business with honesty and integrity, and cherish our reputation. As such we will be considering all options (including legal) to redress this grave injustice against our brand.

We want to take this opportunity to call on the publishers of the said article to immediately retract this falsehood and issue a public apology to MTN and Mrs Amina Oyagbola.

South African telecom giant, MTN, has fired one of its top and most valuable staffers in order to avoid scrutiny by the United States government over bribes offered to Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Shortly after helping to resolve a hefty fine imposed by the Nigerian government, Amina Oyagbola was so important to MTN that the company gave her two strategic positions. Her corporate elevation saw her combining leadership of the Human Resources department with the post of “Director of Strategic Communications” at MTN.

Ms. Oyagbola and her husband were instrumental in resolving MTN’s serious problem with the Nigerian Presidency culminating in a massive $5.2 billion fine imposed on the company for ignoring the Nigerian government’s directive to ensure that all SIM cards were registered as a strategy to curb Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria’s northeast.

An insider within the company and other sources in Abuja told our correspondent that, once the fine was imposed, Ms. Oyagbola recruited a close friend, Femi Lijadu, to act as a consultant for “strategic advisory services.” In that capacity, Mr. Lijadu was a member of the team that negotiated with the Federal Government to reduce the fine to $1.7 billion. One of our sources said Ms. Oyagbola and Mr. Lijadu once worked with presidential Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari at the United Bank for Africa.

Once the fine was reduced to about a third of the original sum, Ms. Oyagbola’s corporate star seemed to soar. However, MTN last week told her to step down from one of her two corporate positions. A source at MTN claimed that Mrs. Oyagbola decided to resign.

However, another source within the company told Saharareporters that the once powerful corporate player was fired after MTN’s bribe scandal with Mr. Kyari came to the notice of the MTN’s parent company in South Africa. The source added that the decision to relieve Ms. Oyagbola was taken in order to avoid the consequences of a global disgrace should US authorities ask questions related to the company’s reported offer of an undisclosed sum as bribe to Mr. Kyari before the senior presidential aide helped broker a deal that lowered the fine earlier imposed by the government.

Source: Sahara Reporters.