MultiChoice has prayed a Federal High Court in Lagos to decline jurisdiction in a suit seeking an order of the court to restrain the Cable television service provider from implementing the 20 per cent rise on DStv and Gotv subscription rates which began on April 1, 2015.
The company through its lawyer, Mr. Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), filed a preliminary objection to the first class action filed by two Lagos-based legal practitioners, Osasuyi Adebayo and Oluyinka Oyeniji, on behalf of themselves and all other DStv subscribers across the country.
Aside seeking the order of the court to bar MultiChoice from going on with the hike, the plaintiffs also want the court to compel the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, to regulate the activities of MultiChoice so as to prevent what they described as arbitrary increment in subscription rates.
They categorically called for the implementation of the pay-per-view scheme in Nigeria, whereby subscribers would only pay for programmes they watched, as is being done in other parts of the world where MultiChoice operates.
But canvassing his argument at the Tuesday’s proceeding, Onigbanjo maintained that the plaintiffs had no cause of action, adding that a court did not have the power to regulate the price of services that a business was offering to its customers.
He drew the attention of the court to MultiChoice’s conditions or terms of agreement, particularly clauses 40 and 41 which states that “Multichoice Nigeria may, from time to time, change the fees payable to Multichoice Nigeria for the Multichoice Service by way of general amendment.”
According to the Senior Advocate, “My Lord, the country, Nigeria operates a free market economy; neither the government nor the court can regulate prices. How do you now say, for instance, that one bread is more expensive than the other and then ask the court to order the baker of the more expensive bread to go out of the market?”
He further argued that there was no existing law in Nigeria empowering the NBC to regulate the prices of services that satellite television operators in the country were offering to their customers.
“The NBC Act does not say that any satellite television operators in the country cannot increase their prices.
“I therefore humbly ask that the plaintiffs’ suit be struck out for being grossly unmeritorious. We will not be asking for cost because they are our subscribers,” Onigbanjo submitted.
Justice C. J. Aneke adjourned the matter till May 21 to rule on an application filed in objection to the suit.
Earlier at the proceeding, counsel for the plaintiffs, Yemi Salma, had reminded the court that there was a pending application for committal filed against the Managing Director and the Public Relations Officer of MultiChoice, Mr. John Ugbe and Caroline Oghuma respectively.
Salma said the said committal application asking the court to jail Ugbe and Oghuma for allegedly disobeying an order of the court should be taken first before any other thing on Tuesday.
Aneke had on April 2, 2015 made an interim order restraining MultiChoice from implementing the 20 per cent increment in subscription rate on DStv, pending the determination of the suit; but the plaintiffs alleged that the order was shunned.
“My Lord, the application for contempt must be taken first. My Lord, this position has been severally adopted by the court, even by the Court of Appeal,” Salma said.
But in opposition, Onigbanjo said the jurisdiction of the court had been challenged and that that had to be settled first before the court could even make any order.
Besides, he reminded the court that the matter was specifically adjourned for the hearing of his client’s preliminary objection, arguing that the court did not have the power to overrule itself.
He argued, “My Lord, a court without jurisdiction that goes on to act, does whatever it does in futility. If a court does not have jurisdiction, where does the power for committal come from?”
Aneke upheld Onigbanjo’s submission and consequently heard MultiChoice’s premilinary objection ahead of the application for committal.
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