Two Lagos-based
legal practitioners, Oluyinka Oyeniji and Osasuyi Adebayo, have commenced
contempt proceedings against the Managing Director of MultiChoice
Nigeria
Limited, Mr. John Ugbe, for allegedly violating a court order.
Ugbe, alongside
the Public Relations Manager of the company, Caroline Oghuma, is liable to
being jailed if found guilty of the allegation.
The lawyers had,
on April 2, 2015, secured a court order of interim injunction restraining
MultiChoice from giving effect to its proposed 20 per cent increment on
subscription fee on the Digital Satellite Television (DStv) being operated by
it.
Justice C.J. Aneke
of a Federal High Court in Lagos, who made the interim order, had held that the
order would subsist till the determination of a lawsuit contesting the legality
of MultiChoice’s newly-introduced subscription rates on DStv.
However, at the
resumed hearing on Thursday, one of the plaintiffs, Oyeniyi, informed the court
that in spite of the court order, MultiChoice had not stopped its new rates,
which had commenced from April 1.
“My Lord, whether
wrongly or rightly, on the 2nd of April, your Lordship made an order that is
bound to be obeyed. We filed a further affidavit citing the defendants for
contempt of court,” Oyeniyi said.
In their motion on
notice, served on the defendants along with Forms 48 and 49, the lawyers
attached as exhibits copies of receipts issued by MultiChoice to certain
subscribers reflecting payment of the new subscription rate of N13, 980 rather
than the old rate of N11, 650 in spite of the court order.
“It is in the
interest of justice to grant this application and empower the honourable court
as the place of last resort to the plaintiffs in preserving the dignity of the
court,” the plaintiffs pleaded as they urged the court to make an order of
committal against Ugbe and Oghuma.
The other prayer
contained in their motion on notice was for the court to order MultiChoice to
make a refund of all excess charges to all customers who had subscribed to the
new rate in the face of the subsisting court order.
The plaintiffs
also asked for an order mandating MultiChoice to tender a full page public
apology in four national newspapers including The Punch, ThisDay, The Guardian
and The Sun, to all subscribers for violating the court order.
They also want the
court to compel the company to tender televised apology on DStv as well as via
text messages to all subscribers in the country.
But lawyer for
MultiChoice, Mr. M.J. Onigbanjo (SAN), said the order was wrongly made.
He noted that
while the order was granted on April 2, the increment that the applicants
complained of took effect on April 1 and his client could, therefore, not be held
for contempt of court.
But Oyeniyi
maintained that the order was for a continuing action rather than a concluded
action.
The plaintiffs in
their substantive suit are seeking an order of the court compelling the
National Broadcasting Commission to regulate the activities of MultiChoice on
DStv.
They want an
enforcement of the pay-per-view scheme, whereby subscribers would only pay for
programmes they watched, as was being done in other parts of the world where
MultiChoice operated.
But the company,
through Onigbanjo, is challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain
the suit as well as the competence of the originating summons served on it.
Onigbanjo
contended that the applicants lacked the locus standi to institute the action,
saying they could not dictate how MultiChoice would run and conduct its
business.
The Senior
Advocate of Nigeria also insisted that it was not within the authority of NBC
to prevent the company from making increment in the price of services being
offered to its customers.
He pointed the
attention of the court to clauses 40 and 41 of the company’s terms of
conditions which stated that “MultiChoice Nigeria may, from time to time,
change the fees payable to MultiChoice Nigeria for the MultiChoice service by
way of general amendment.”
Onigbanjo said the
plaintiff had no reasonable cause of action, just as he described the suit as
academic “because the act complained of has been completed.”
Besides, he argued
that the originating summons served on his client was defective, as service was
not compliant with Section 97 of the Sheriffs and Civil Process Act, as regards
a writ that must be served outside the court’s jurisdiction.
Aneke
adjourned till May 5, 2015 for further hearing.
Photo of John Ugbe
DStv in trouble as court set to jail MD over high cost Contempt charges
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Friday, April 17, 2015
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