MTN Nigeria denies dealing with firm threatening facilities

MTN Nigeria says it has never had any direct dealings with Gbaruka Resources, which has threatened to demolish its facilities in the Niger Delta over an alleged failure by MTN to honour contractual agreements it is said to have reached with Procomtel Limited, one of its contractors in the country. MTN questioned why it should be liable for debt that is owed to Gbaruka by Procomtel.

A copy of a petition, endorsed by ‘Comrade Charles Taylor, MD Gbaruka Resources’, and addressed to the CEO MTN Nigeria, alleged that as a result of a huge debt that MTN supposedly owes Procomtel, its subcontract Gbaruka can no longer service the bank facilities it obtained to execute some of the projects.

Funmi Omogbenigun, general manager for corporate affairs at MTN, said that Procomtel was engaged by MTN as a contractor, and not Gbaruka Resources. She said MTN does not have any direct contractual relationship with Gbaruka Resources as such, it does not know them.

She said Procomtel was engaged as a site build contractor to carry out specific works as might be required by MTN, and upon completion of the works, MTN representatives were to verify work status and issue Certificates of Completion. Omogbenigun said that MTN had suffered losses arising from delays and failures by Procomtel in its job execution, a development that compelled the operator to undertake the completion of the project.