POLICE ACCUSE MTN OF PERJURY,FALSIFICATION

• Seek prosecution of telecoms’ firm A FRESH vista was opened Tuesday in the controversy dogging suspended President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Ayo Isa Salami, over alleged communication with some leaders of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), which allegedly led to his compromising some election matters. The police Tuesday indicted the telecommunications giant for suppressing crucial evidence in the matter. The indictment was contained in a copy of the report of police investigations into allegations of manipulation of the call data records relating to some phone lines allegedly belonging to Justice Salami and some ACN leaders. Dated February 8, 2013 and titled “Police Investigation Report on A Case of Conspiracy, Forgery and Perversion of the course of Justice by MTN Nigeria Ltd,” the copy of the report signed by a Commissioner of Police, Ali Amodu, said that the police found that MTN failed to release some of the call data which would have helped to ascertain the discussion between Salami and the said politicians. The police report agreed with Olagunsoye Oyinlola, whose petition to the Minister of Police Affairs alleged that the telecoms’ firm deliberately withheld components of the call data records of Justice Ayo Salami, Alhaji Tunji Ijaiya, Lai Mohammed and several other ACN chieftains to frustrate investigation. Consequently, it recommended that “MTN Nigeria should be prosecuted for an attempt to suppress evidence in this case as provided by Section 167 (8) of the Evidence Act.” In part, the police report reads: “Request was made to MTN to furnish the particulars of the following subscriber numbers and the company responded thus: 08034004887 belongs to Justice Isa Ayo Salami; 08034240000 belongs to Bola Ahmed Tinubu (registered incidentally in the name of MTN Director, Tunde Folawiyo (Lagos State Governor); 08034010700 belongs to Alhaji Tunji Ijaiya. “Matthew Okoromi, a Senior Subscriber Fraud Analyst in MTN’s employ, confirmed that the CDRs obtained by Area ‘G’ Command, Ogba, Lagos (which one Rotimi Odusola of MTN repudiated before the National Judicial Council’s Special Investigative Panel) actually emanated from the telecoms’ firm. “Subscriber No. 08034010700 which belongs to Alhaji Tunji Ijaiya of 8, Aderemi Adeleye Road, GRA, Ilorin, appears to have been used as a link between 08034301111 (Lai Mohammed), 08034240000 and 08034004887 (Justice Isa Ayo Salami of Plot 11, New Bussa Close, Area 3, Garki, Abuja) as there was exchange of calls between Justice Ayo Salami and Alhaji Tunji Ijaiya on one hand and Tunji Ijaiya with the other mentioned subscribers on the other. “While call logs earlier released to Area ‘G’ Command, Ogba, Lagos, spanned a period of five calendar months, MTN claimed its historical data storage capacity was limited only to three months. The report also highlighted the fact that incoming calls were missing from the call data records forwarded to both the SSS and NSA.” According to the report, “a legal advice received from the Legal Section of the ‘D’ Department (FCID), Abuja dated February 8, 2013, opined that MTN Nigeria should be prosecuted for suppressing evidence in this case as provided by Section 167 (8) of the Evidence Act, please.” Meanwhile, an action brought by former Governor of Ekiti State, Chief Segun Oni, asking Justice Adamu Bello of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, to revoke the operating licence of MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd, owing to its alleged manipulation of call data records of the same Justice Ayo Salami and some ACN chieftains has been fixed for mention on February 25. MTN has been under intense investigation following a petition by Oyinlola and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Osun and Ekiti State chapters, accusing the telecommunications giant of altering call logs detailing the interaction between Salami and some ACN leaders when he presided over election petitions. They accused Salami of favouring candidates of the ACN between 2009 and 2010 after being induced by the party leadership as a result of the telephone interactions. The petition was written to the Inspector-General of Police (IGP). He immediately mandated the Commissioner of Police (CP) Ali Amodu-led Special Task Force to investigate the allegations. In the petition entitled “A Case of Perjury Against Mr. Rotimi Odusola, Senior Manager, Commercial Legal, MTN Nigeria Communications Ltd”, Oyinlola requested the police to investigate allegations of false evidence by MTN officials before the National Judicial Council (NJC) panel, which initially dismissed the ‘call logs’ presented to the panel as not authentic. Responding to the petition, MTN officials claimed the company gave out several SIM cards to the Lagos State Government a long time ago and provided the police with photographs of supposed current users of the telephone lines. However, while providing additional information to the police, Oyinlola’s principal witness, Mr. Adeolu Oyinlola, claimed that MTN was being economical with the truth. He stated categorically that it was the fact of the telephonic interactions between and among ACN chieftains, its lawyers, Salami and his bosom friend, Tunji Ijaiya, which MTN desperately tried to cover up from the NJC’s Special Investigative Panel, that led it (MTN) to manipulate the call data records it transmitted to the panel, through the law enforcement and security agencies. Both numbers, Mr. Adeolu Oyinlola claimed, belong to Tinubu; one registered in the name of the ACN leader’s aide, Gbadegesin Ademola, while the other was registered in the name of Tunde Folawiyo, who is a director at MTN. Consequently, the police have asked MTN to produce the documents (driver’s licence, utility bill, crossed cheque, passport photographs) it collected from the supposed owners of the two controversial lines, prior to accepting them on the telecoms company’s post-paid platform. Following the testimony of the communication giants, NJC absolved Salami and the other justices of the election tribunal of any ethical breach. The call logs disowned by the MTN were allegedly sourced from Area ‘G’ Police Command in Lagos during investigation, making former Governors Oyinlola and Oni to suspect that the MTN was acting a script to pervert the course of justice. Subsequently, Oyinlola went to court, claiming that MTN deliberately released incomplete call data to the National Security Adviser (NSA) and the NJC in order to protect Salami and certain politicians accused of unethical communications during the trial of appeals arising from the governorship elections in the two states. MTN had hitherto denied the ownership of a line said to belong to Tinubu, which was reportedly used to interact with Salami. But as the matter progressed, the telecommunications giant recanted and admitted to the police that the former governor owned the line. Two MTN officials — Rotimi Oghenerume and Rotimi Odusola — accompanied by a lawyer, Rotimi Oguneso from Ibrahim Abdullahi and Company, represented the firm at the Police Force Headquarters in Abuja as part of the ongoing investigation into the petition that the company perverted the course of justice by doctoring Salami’s call data records, which it submitted to the NJC. They told detectives attached to the Special Task Force (STF) set up by the Inspector-General of Police (IG) that Tinubu owned the phone number, which they earlier claimed belonged to one ‘Tunde Folawiyo’. The second number identified as one of Salami’s callers and his friend, Tunji Ijaya, was also said to belong to one Gbadegesin Ademola, identified as Tinubu’s personal assistant. The telecoms’ officials, who were later released on bail, were said to have had a hard time explaining to the investigators why the numbers were registered in the names of persons other than the real users, which was seen as an attempt by the company to cover up the identity of the real subscribers. The investigators had earlier been told by MTN officials that one Abdusalam Rasheed owned the line attributed to Tinubu. The police team had reportedly obtained a court order compelling MTN to produce all the documents used in registering the phone lines of several persons fingered in the call logs saga. Odusola, who testified before the NJC and is also facing allegations of perjury for giving false evidence in his affidavit before the court, admitted that his company provided the call logs to the Area ‘G’ Police Command. Odusola also claimed in his statement on oath that the MTN system could not store more than three months in call records. He was, however, confronted with call data records provided by his company which spanned five months, prompting him to plead that the situation could only be explained by the technical officials of the company. In addition, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) was reportedly served with a court order to release the biometric data of the owners of the two lines.