The Federal High Court in Lagos has stopped telecommunications firms in the country from suspending the APC campaign fundraising platform.
This came in an ex-parte order issued by Justice Ibrahim Buba following the party’s motion. The order restrains Etisalat, MTN, Glo, Airtel and Visafone from giving effect to a directive by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, which warned them against running political promotions that will portray them as being partisan.
The judge has ordered the telecoms firms to continue to run, operate and/or restore to its full operative use , the Short Message Service, SMS, code platform 35350 created for fundraising for the applicant’s presidential campaign.
APC had initiated plans for the platform to operate till 12th of February when campaign activities for the presidential election is to stop in line with Electoral Act and the election time-table.
Meanwhile, in the originating motion, APC is demanding 25 Billion Naira damages from the defendants for violating the fundamental rights of the party and its members.
According to the APC , the NCC’s directive contravened its right to freedom of expression guaranteed under Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution.
Meanwhile, the NCC has maintained that it did not give orders to telecoms operators to withdraw the SMS code for the party's funding campaign. They also clarified that they did not order any telecommunications operator to shut down the platforms used by political parties to raise funds.
The Executive Vice-Chairman of NCC, Eugene Juwah, said the issue came about as a result of subscribers complaining about their privacy being invaded through unsolicited text messages for votes by the political party which came on the end of airtime balance check or re-load of airtime.
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