The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against the Federal Government and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) over the recent 50 per cent increase in telecom tariffs.
The suit filed by Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), on behalf of SERAP, challenges the NCC’s decision to raise the average cost of calls from N11 to N16.5 per minute, increase 1 gigabyte (GB) of data from N287.5 to N431.25, and raise SMS charges from N4 to ₦6.
The organisation in a statement issued on Sunday, January 26, described the telcos hike as arbitrary, unconstitutional, and a violation of citizens’ rights, saying the decision was made without proper consultation and is inconsistent with legal and constitutional standards.
According to SERAP, the increase breaches the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection (FCCPC) Act 2018, the Nigerian Constitution, and international human rights standards, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
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The group is asking the court for “a declaration that the unilateral decision by the NCC to authorise telcos to hike telecom tariff by 50 per cent is arbitrary, unfair, unreasonable and inconsistent and incompatible with citizens’ freedom of expression and access to information, and therefore unconstitutional and unlawful.”
SERAP said it has also sought an order of interim injunction restraining the NCC, or any other person acting on its instructions from further implementing, and enforcing a telecom tariff hike by 50 per cent.
“The NCC is required under the legal provisions on consumers’ rights and constitutional and international standards on freedom of expression and access to information to base its decision on reasonable interpretations of its enabling statutes and guidelines and other relevant legal frameworks, and to follow due process.”
“The exercise of the statutory powers of the NCC in approving the telecom tariff hike is a grave violation of the provisions of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2018, the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to which Nigeria is a state party,” the statement added.
The group further contended that the tariff hike disregards the financial realities of Nigerians, citing the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) report that over 133 million Nigerians live in poverty, with more than half of the population relying on wood, dung, or charcoal for cooking due to rising energy costs.
