Bennett Oghifo
The Chairman of the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON), Engr. Gbenga Adebayo, has mentioned the current summons issued by the House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee to telecommunications firm chief executives raises “serious constitutional questions” concerning the scope and limits of legislative investigative powers.
Engr. Adebayo, whereas fielding questions from journalists on the weekend, gave an in depth account of his look earlier than the Committee and the authorized reasoning behind ALTON’s place that the summons, as framed, exceeded the boundaries set by the 1999 Constitution.
The Ad Hoc Committee, chaired by Rep. Olumide Osoba (APC-Ogun), had on October 21 directed the CEOs of MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, Globacom and Mafab Communications to look earlier than it on October 28, warning that any govt who didn’t attend may face arrest. The Committee was established to analyze the persistent decline in high quality of telecommunications providers throughout Nigeria.
According to Adebayo, he appeared earlier than the Committee in his capability as ALTON Chairman “not with the intention of preventing individual operators from discharging their legitimate responsibilities, but to ensure that the Committee understood the industry’s concerns and the constitutional issues arising from the nature of the summons.”
The summons had drawn consideration throughout the enterprise neighborhood, with the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry amongst these calling for a measured method that preserved the regulatory autonomy of sector-specific companies.
Lawmakers, nevertheless, informed Adebayo that he couldn’t characterize the person operators in that capability.
“The difficulty was that the Committee appeared to regard the operators themselves as subjects of investigation rather than private entities being invited to provide information or assist with a legitimate legislative inquiry,” Adebayo mentioned. “We respectfully disagreed with that approach.”
He disclosed that ALTON formally communicated its place to the Committee in a letter dated 20 October 2026, setting out each its willingness to cooperate and its considerations concerning the constitutional framework governing the summons.
At the centre of the dispute is the interpretation of Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution, which grant the National Assembly investigative powers for particular legislative functions. Adebayo argued that the important query is “whether those powers extend to compelling privately owned and regulated telecommunications companies to account for their commercial and operational activities in circumstances where the matters being investigated fall within the statutory jurisdiction of the sector regulator.”
ALTON has historical past on this level. In 2018, the affiliation filed swimsuit on the Federal High Court searching for a judicial interpretation of the Assembly’s oversight powers over telecoms operators. That case stays pending.
Adebayo cited a number of judicial selections to help ALTON’s place. In DHL International Nigeria Limited v. Senate, the courts examined the bounds of the Assembly’s investigative powers in relation to non-public firms. In Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited v. Speaker, House of Representatives (2023), the Court of Appeal held that investigative powers should be linked to constitutional functions prescribed by legislation. A July 2023 Federal High Court ruling in Wale Taiwo SAN v. Stanbic IBTC equally held that the investigative powers of the National Assembly beneath Sections 88 and 89 should relate to issues inside the Assembly’s legislative competence.
He additionally pointed to a pending enchantment earlier than the Supreme Court involving the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) on the identical constitutional provisions, arguing that “institutions should exercise restraint where substantially related constitutional questions are already before the courts.”
“These are not questions that should be settled through threats of arrest or institutional confrontation,” Adebayo mentioned. “We must allow the courts to determine the outstanding legal issues while ensuring that the National Assembly, the NCC and industry operators work together within their respective constitutional and statutory mandates.”
He was, nevertheless, cautious to differentiate his place from outright hostility to legislative engagement. “I would not dismiss legislative hearings outright. They can be useful instruments of accountability, public engagement and policy development,” he mentioned. “However, we must distinguish between hearings that produce meaningful outcomes and hearings that simply generate headlines.”
The NCC, which has the statutory accountability to control the telecommunications trade, had itself disclosed on the ninety fifth Telecom Consumers Parliament in Lagos that over 75 million subscribers had been compensated for poor service and that operators had carried out greater than 7,000 focused community interventions in 2026.
“The National Assembly should complement, rather than duplicate, the work of the regulator,” Adebayo mentioned. “When legitimate regulatory concerns exist, the most productive path is to strengthen the capacity and mandate of the NCC rather than to create parallel mechanisms of accountability that may ultimately produce more confusion than clarity.”
The NCC itself regulates over 220 million lively telecoms subscriptions in Nigeria, and the sector contributes greater than 14 per cent of GDP, figures that either side acknowledge elevate the stakes of any institutional dispute over jurisdiction.
