In a swift response to media publications indicting telecommunications firm, 9mobile, in a N55 billion court judgment, the management of the company has debunked any involvement in the said debt.
According to a statement released over the weekend, 9mobile management stated: “Our attention has been drawn to a wave of syndicated media publications dated Friday 19, July 2024 with the same copious headline, “Court orders 9mobile to pay N55bn debt to Keystone Bank.” The Management of 9mobile wishes to inform the concerned public and critical stakeholders that, contrary to this misleading headline, Emerging Markets Telecommunication Services Limited (EMTS), trading as 9mobile was neither a party to any suit nor affected by the order said to have been made against it as an entity.”
The statement noted that the story is not only false but also defamatory in its effect on the 9mobile corporate reputation. “If the correspondents who filed the obviously syndicated news stories were anywhere near the court room during the proceedings leading to the issuance of the said order, they would have known that at no point was 9mobile a party to the suit in question. Rather, the action was appropriately classified and filed as, “Keystone Bank v. Teleology Nigeria Limited.”
For the avoidance of doubt, no judgment was made against 9mobile and the attempt to link our corporate entity with a transaction by our minority shareholder, Teleology Nigeria Limited in its legal tussle with Keystone Bank, is false and maliciously misleading. 9Mobile is under new ownership with a 95.5 % controlling stake in the business and has not been found liable for the action of its minority shareholder in the suit in question. Our business transformation programme has commenced and we are poised to reclaim our place in the market.”
It will be recalled that in 2018, Teleology Holdings Limited acquired a minority share in 9mobile, but pulled out in 2019 leaving Teleology Nigeria Limited with a minority stake in 9mobile. Teleology Nigeria Limited is a consortium of several local and foreign investors.
