Someone won N3 million in a court case against MTN Nigeria

folarin okunola

June 12, 2017 3:46 PM

An Abuja Court of Appeal sealed the deal when it ruled that MTN Nigeria did indeed violate Eneye’s right to privacy.

MTN is the largest mobile phone operator in Nigeria

One MTN Nigeria subscriber, Godfrey Eneye, who also happens to be a lawyer, has won a lawsuit against MTN Nigeria (winning N3 million in damages in the process) in which he alleged that the South Africa-based company violated his privacy by giving his subscriber information to third-party entities to send him unsolicited texts.

“The respondent (MTN) offers and provides a bulk SMS message service to customers and permits the sending of bulk messages by individuals, organisations and other bodies through their network upon certain specified conditions agreed between the respondent and the respective subscribers to the said bulk SMS service,” read Eneye’s suit against MTN Nigeria, according to a Punch Online report.

While a Federal High Court in Abuja had already ruled in favor of Eneye (and awarded him N5 million in damages) in an earlier verdict, an Abuja Court of Appeal sealed the deal when it ruled that MTN Nigeria did indeed violate Eneye’s right to privacy by virtue of the innumerable text messages sent to him via MTN Nigeria’s bulk SMS service (which MTN offers to third-party entities).

ALSO READ: It’s illegal for telcos to send you unsolicited messages

Justice Emmanuel Agim, who delivered the verdict, said, “By giving those unknown persons and organisations access to the respondent’s MTN GSM phone number, to send text messages into it, the appellant violated the respondent’s fundamental right to privacy guaranteed by section 37 of the Constitution which includes the right to the privacy of a person’s telephone line.

“The said section 37 of the 1999 Constitution provides that, ‘The privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic conversations is hereby guaranteed and protected’.

“The innumerable text messages without his consent at all times is a violation of his fundamental right to the privacy of his telephone conversations, correspondence and his person and telephone line and telephone message inbox.”

Eneye was also awarded N3 million in damages by the Appellate Court, down from the N5 million awarded by the Federal High Court in Abuja on the grounds that the lower court did not give any reasons for awarding the initial sum.

MTN Nigeria has maintained that it did not disclosed Eneye’s information to subscribers — a stance that did not sway the court on both occassions.

Will this instance serve as a deterrent to other telcos on unsolicited text messages? Are we about to see a wave of court judgements in favor of subscribers?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. We’d love to hear from you!

folarin okunola