Globacom’s (Glo) may have landed in trouble over N5.9 billion debt the firm is owing the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
This is especially as NCAA on Wednesday shutdown the telecommunication company’s facility in Wuse 2, Abuja, and have threatened to do same to some of firm’s Main Switch Centres (MSC) across the country.
The shutting down of the Glo facility in Abuja cane as the Director-General of the NCAA, Capt. Musa Nuhu stormed the location of the facility.
The action, which was supervised by the Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, has left many subscribers stranded.
Nuhu, after shutting the facility, vowed that the action would continue on some of Glo’s MSC across the country until the company commits to a payment schedule as regards unpaid height clearance certificate fees.
According to NCAA, the directive to pull down the Glo base station came from the Presidency.
FirstNews learnt that the telecom failed to honour meeting appointments between them and NCAA.
The government agency, it was further learnt, decided to put further meetings on hold until Globacom explained why they snubbed the agency.
In a letter to the Managing Director of the telecom company titled ‘Re: Illegal Erection Of High Structures And Refusal To Renew Expired Height Clearance Certificates By Globacom Limited’, and signed by Emmanuel Dubem Chukwuma, its Legal Adviser/ Head Compliance and Enforcement, NCAA forewarned of the resolve to pull down the base stations since the firm refused to honour recent summon for a meeting on September 23 to discuss their expired height clearance certificate.
Part of the content of the letter read, “It is unfortunate that despite our concurrence to a further rescheduling of the meeting to a requested date, and so informing you through our letter of 13th September 2021, you failed to turn up for the meeting. The Director-General of the NCAA had to abort an official assignment in Europe and return to Nigeria, in order to be able to attend the meeting”.
The letter noted that the Globacom group only wrote a letter three days after, demanding for the rescheduling of the meeting without explaining why they were absent in the first place.
The letter further read, “I am directed to inform you that the NCAA is not disposed to granting this latest (fourth) request to reschedule the meeting, particularly as no reason was given for your non-attendance at the last date.
“In this circumstance, having exhausted all avenues of a resolution of this matter, we are now left without a choice but to apply the relevant sanctions, including the dismantling of all your non-compliant masts nationwide. And this shall be without further notice to you.”