Business
‘NCC Won’t Shift Grounds On Sanctions’
The Director, Public Af
fairs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr Tony Ojobo, last Wednesday said that the commission was not ready to shift ground on the sanctions made to service providers.
Ojobo said this at a news conference in Abuja after a meeting with Chief Executive Officers’ of the service providers.
He said that the deadline given to the service providers by the commission to pay fines for poor service delivery expired on May 25 and none of them had complied till date.
He insisted on the position of NCC that the sanctions and the penalties would have to be paid by the service providers.
“NCC is not ready to shift ground, we are re-emphasising that we are maintaining our stand on the payment of sanctions.
“We are not reconsidering our position, we have not indicated that the default period has been waived. So, nothing is waived, neither the regional sanction nor the default period penalty at the time of payment, all of that have to be paid.
“So, we have entered the default period from May 26, so counting from 26th of May to anytime payment is made, it is N2.5 million per day of default,’’ Ojobo said.
He said that the management of the commission agreed to meet with the CEOs of the service providers so as to find out if there would be any new issues that would be raised.
Ojobo said that at the meeting, the NCC sought to know reason for their coming and the service providers indicated that they wanted to see if NCC could review its position on the sanction.
He said that the service providers attributed the cause of poor quality service to inadequate power supply, cable cut, multi taxation, adding that these challenges were not new to the commission.
The NCC spokesperson said that the issue of quality of service had been on in the last six years until January this year when the quality of service guideline was gazetted.
Ojobo said that in the guideline of the key performance indicators, after the deadline for the payment of the sanction, there was going to be N2.5 million penalty for each day of the default.
“We are already in a default period and it is expected that the sanctions as well as the default penalties have to be paid,’’ he said.
Kenya made it a clean sweep at the Berlin Marathon with Sabastian Sawe winning the men’s race and Rosemary Wanjiru triumphing in the women’s.
Sawe finished in two hours, two minutes and 16 seconds to make it three wins in his first three marathons.
The 30-year-old, who was victorious at this year’s London Marathon, set a sizzling pace as he left the field behind and ran much of the race surrounded only by his pacesetters.
Japan’s Akasaki Akira came second after a powerful latter half of the race, finishing almost four minutes behind Sawe, while Ethiopia’s Chimdessa Debele followed in third.
“I did my best and I am happy for this performance,” said Sawe.
“I am so happy for this year. I felt well but you cannot change the weather. Next year will be better.”
Sawe had Kelvin Kiptum’s 2023 world record of 2:00:35 in his sights when he reached halfway in 1:00:12, but faded towards the end.
In the women’s race, Wanjiru sped away from the lead pack after 25 kilometers before finishing in 2:21:05.
Ethiopia’s Dera Dida followed three seconds behind Wanjiru, with Azmera Gebru, also of Ethiopia, coming third in 2:21:29.
Wanjiru’s time was 12 minutes slower than compatriot Ruth Chepng’etich’s world record of 2:09:56, which she set in Chicago in 2024.