MTN Wins, Court Lifts Order Barring Building of Base Stations

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has dismissed a prior court order restraining mobile telecommunication network service provider MTN from building base stations in the country.

This was contained in a ruling issued on March 8 by Justice Yellim Bogoro of the Federal High Court in Lagos, which held that none of the network service provider’s base transceiver stations violated the regulations of the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) on the spacing between towers, as opposed to assertions by the Incorporated Trustees of HEDA Resource Centre.

The ruling also lifted the barring order on ATC Nigeria Wireless Infrastructure Limited from building base transceiver stations.

In a suit numbered FHC/L/CS/2359/2023, HEDA had filed an ex-parte motion praying the court to stop ATC from continuing the construction of its proposed 2,500 base stations, alleging that the planned base stations were close to those belonging to IHS Towers Nigeria.

Listing the Federal Ministry of Environment and Ecological Management, MTN, ATC, and others as defendants in the lawsuit, HEDA argued that such proximity was in contravention of the NCC’s regulations and eventually obtained an interim order dated November 21 barring the defendants from proceeding with the stations.

In swift action, MTN, through its lawyers, Kenna Partners, led by Prof. Fabian Ajogwu (SAN), applied to Justice Bogoro to set aside the order, arguing that HEDA’s claims were not substantial enough for the court to have barred the defendants from continuing with their planned projects.