UPDATE - Nigeria has no power to regulate DSTV prices — MultiChoice

South African digital satellite television company, Multichoice, has defended its decision to increase DSTV subscription rates in Nigeria, saying neither the country nor its courts, has the powers to regulate its prices.
The ruling on the objecti​on by Multichoice Nigeria Limited against an application seeking to stop the price increase has been scheduled for Thursday, May 21, 2015 at the Federal High Court, Lagos.
Two Lagos-based lawyers, Oluyinka Oyeniji and Osasuyi Adebayo, had initiated a class action on behalf of millions of Nigerians who criticised the new subscription rates as exploitative and insensitive.
The duo had sought the order of the court to stop MultiChoice or its agents from implementing the 20 per cent hike in the fees charged subscribers for using the service effective April 1, 2015.
The plaintiffs equally asked the court to compel the National Broadcasting Commission to take steps to monitor and regulate MultiChoice operations in Nigerian to ensure that it does not hike their fees arbitrarily.
The two applicants said they were expecting the NBC to ensure that they compel DSTV to deal with Nigerians the same way DSTV deals with other subscribers in other parts of the continent where MultiChoice operates, by ensuring that the pay-per-view scheme was introduced in the country.
This arrangement, they argued, would ensure that Nigerian subscribers to DSTV would only pay for programmes actually watched, as is the case in South Africa.
However, in objecting to the application, counsel to MultiChoice, Moyosore Onigbanjo (SAN), urged the court to deny the plaintiffs their demands and discountenance their pleas.
According to Mr. Onigbanjo, apart from the plaintiffs not having any good cause of action through their application, he also reminded the court that it did not have the legal authority to regulate what the company decides to charge its customers for its services.
The lawyer drew the court’s attention to clauses 40 and 41 in his client’s terms or conditions of service, stating: “Multichoice Nigeria may, from time to time, change the fees payable to Multichoice Nigeria for the Multichoice Service by way of general amendment.”
As a country operating a free market economy, Mr. Onigbanjo said, neither the Nigerian government nor the court has the power to regulate the prices for its services.
He noted that at the moment, Nigeria does not have an existing law that empowers the NBC to monitor and regulate the prices for services offered by satellite television operators.
To enable the court rule on the objection, Justice C.J. Aneke therefore adjourned further sitting till May 21.

214 OF THE 234 GIRLS RESCUED IN NIGERIA FROM BOKO HARAM ARE PREGNANT

The latest rescue of additional 234 women and children by the Nigerian Army from the Sambisa Forest in Borno State, indicated, yesterday, that a sizeable number of the rescued girls were visibly pregnant, even as unofficial reports put the latest number of pregnant girls in one of the camps in Borno as at last Saturday at 214.
Giving this indication in Lagos, Executive Director, UNFPA, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, also disclosed that in the last one year, the organization had taken deliveries of over 16,000 pregnancies in the troubled North East part of the country.
Osotimehin, while giving update of the response to the rehabilitation of the rescued women and children, said the organization, in anticipation of the magnitude of the problem on hand, had put in place a formidable team in collaboration with the Federal and state governments, to first restore the dignity of the girls, who, he said, are facing severe psychosocial trauma.
On the state of the girls, he explained that most of them, due to the long period spent in captivity, required a special set of services that would facilitate their integration into society.
“What we found is that some of the women and girls that have come back actually have much more in terms of the stress they have faced, so the counselling has to be more intense and working with them one-on-one.
“I’m glad the communities are not excommunicating them and are taking them back. That is an important therapy too. We anticipate this is going to escalate because the military intervention is continuing, we find that more people are now needing our services and we will continue,” he stated.
Further, he explained that the UNFPA had earlier collaborated with the Federal and state governments to train 60 counsellors to offer psychosocial services to the affected women and children. He noted that those trained were people from the communities, who understand the context and sociology of the people.
“UNFPA is providing dignity for women. In conflict and disasters, most people would only think of water and sanitation, provision of tents and housing, and food, which are all important. But women and girls have specific needs that nobody else looks after; it is only UNFPA that is doing this. We are giving psychosocial counselling.
“Beyond that, in the growing young people, we will always have pregnant women, but nobody segregates the needs of the pregnant women which are very important and different from the needs of the average community. We look after them, and ensure they get antenatal care and that they deliver properly and that they even get Caesarean Section when necessary.

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