By Uche Onyeali
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has dragged President Bola Tinubu to court over what it described as arbitrary telecom tariff hike by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC.
The social rights and anti-corruption organisation described the 50% hike in tariff on calls data usage by Nigerians as unconstitutional, unlawful, unfair and unreasonable.
Also joined in the suit as defendants are the NCC, which recently approved a 50% hike in telecom tariffs.
The average price of calls will rise to N16.5 per minute from N11; the cost of 1GB of data will rise to N431.25 from N287.5/GB; and SMS prices from N4 to N6 by the increase.
In the suit, numbered FHC/ABJ/CS/111/2025, filed last Friday at the Federal High Court, Abuja, SERAP wants the court to determine “whether the unilateral decision by the NCC to authorise telcos to hike telecom tariffs by 50% is not arbitrary, unconstitutional, unlawful, unfair, unreasonable and inconsistent with citizens’ freedom of expression and access to information”.
The organisation is also asking the court for a declaration that the unilateral decision by the NCC to authorise telcos to hike telecom tariff by 50% is arbitrary, unfair, unreasonable and inconsistent and incompatible with citizens’ freedom of expression and access to information and therefore unconstitutional and unlawful.
Others are “an order of interim injunction restraining NCC, its officers, agents, privies, assigns, or any other person or persons acting on its instructions from further implementing, enforcing and doing any act to give effect to the decision of the NCC authorising telecom tariff hike by 50%.
SERAP in the suit argued that the legal and constitutional provisions as well as international standards on freedom of expression and access to information constitutes the repository of legality, adding that the requirements of legality constrains the exercise of statutory powers by the NCC to authorise any increase in telecom tariffs.
The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa (SAN), wants clear duties of fairness and reasonableness on the NCC in the exercise of its powers to authorise the telecom tariff hike by 50% which is the subject-matter of this suit.
The NCC is required under the legal provisions on consumers’ rights and constitutional and international standards on freedom of expression and access to information to base its decision on reasonable interpretations of its enabling statutes and guidelines and other relevant legal frameworks, and to follow due process.
