More staff members of telecommunications company MTN Nigeria have exposed massive corrupt practices including sexual harassment and victimisation of workers being perpetuated by the firm’s Chief Sales and Distribution Officer, Adekunle Adebiyi, General Manager, Northern Regional Operations, Amina Dambatta, and some other senior officers of the organisation.
In an email addressed to the leadership of MTN Nigeria and MTN Group in South Africa on Thursday and seen by SaharaReporters, the aggrieved workers under the banner of ‘Anonymous Concerned Staff of Sales and Distribution Division’, alleged that a cabal run by the aforementioned officers operating in different regions of the country had grossly violated the rights of workers by stifling their voices and victimising them for daring to complain about certain anomalies they notice within the system.
The group of aggrieved workers also revealed that Adebiyi and Dambatta in active connivance with members of their cabal including Abdulhamid Hassan, a Senior Manager in Sales and Distribution, and Hamza Ibrahim, who was recently appointed Senior Manager in Sales and Distribution, had planted their cronies in key supply and distribution channels of the company, thereby shortchanging MTN and pocketing huge sums of money monthly.
According to the group, some trade partners in the Northern region of Nigeria were owned by either Adebiyi or Dambatta with such firms given preferential treatment over others against the company’s policy.
The aggrieved workers in the email to MTN’s management also accused the principal officers mentioned of retaining their cronies, who had earlier defrauded the company of huge sums of money rather than delisting and barring them from doing business with the telecommunications firm again.
The whistle-blowers said staff members who complain about these unwholesome practices, are either transferred to remote communities or troubled zones in Northern Nigeria as punishment or dismissed entirely for having the guts to challenge the power brokers.
The email partly reads, “We, the concerned staff of Sales and Distribution Division in the Northern region of Nigeria, write to bring to the attention of MTN Group and MTN Nigeria Communication Plc’s Board, Management, Risk and Compliance division about key conflict of interest, fraudulent activities, sexual harassment and threat of dismissal that has continued to be pervasive in the Northern region. Due to fear of victimisation, staff in the North are too afraid to speak.
“The General Manager, Northern Regional Operations, Amina Dambatta, runs a cabal made up of her, Abdulhamid Hassan (Senior Manager in Sales and Distribution) and Hamza Ibrahim (recently appointed Senior Manager in Sales and Distribution). Amina and her cabal including Adekunle Adebiyi, Chief Sales and Distribution Officer, have interests in some trade partner companies in the Northern region. This makes her compromise, thereby placing other partners at a competitive disadvantage.
“Here is an example: in the Sokoto area, Munifaz, Gobir Jega and Amali are three dealerships in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states and they are all owned by the same person and Amina has interests in all three.
“She and Adekunle Adebiyi facilitated the granting of dealerships to the same person under three different names, disguising themselves as different persons against MTN conflict of interest policy. The owner of this company has also not declared to MTN that he is the owner of these three competing companies.
“Nobody ever questioned why Amina and Adebiyi approved for one person to own three different dealerships without it being declared to MTN Nigeria for transparency.
“This conflict of interest that Amina and Adebiyi have is the reason why Gobir Jega and Munifaz got away with fraud. Their staff defrauded MTN Nigeria to the tune of N17 million and N13 million respectively but they were treated with a mere slap on the wrist. See Also
“Amina insisted on giving a waiver of 50% on the total amount to be recovered. How can a waiver be granted in fraud recovery? When that was not approved by Legal, Amina recommended a payment plan of 10 years.
“Why would someone defraud MTN and they are given 10 years to pay back when they should be delisted/dismissed and asked to pay immediately? Why are they being retained as dealers?
“Another area of conflict is that BENJEE is the trade partner in Sokoto and Kebbi states and this is owned by Amina and Kunle Adebiyi. The same people also own Nagwari Ltd., a customer acquisition partner in the three states.
“The entire S and D staff in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara are aware of this but they are too afraid to speak up as they are constantly being threatened with disciplinary hearing or redeployment to states with security challenges. Nobody wants to be redeployed to such states, so they stay mute.
“These trade partners where Amina and others have interest earn tens of millions each month. They earn more than other partners and they don’t contribute as much as the others in terms of gross connection, revenue etc. Why the unfairness?
“Other partners in the region feel there isn’t a level playing field as preferences are given to the dealers and CAPs that Amina and Adekunle Adebiyi and Abdulhamid have interest in. The other partners cannot run to Amina because rather than being an unbiased umpire, she sees them as competitors because they are competing with CAPs and dealers where she has a stake.
“This conflict of interest is not declared, so it is hurting the business. Some of these dealers are making plans to report this conflict of interest and corruption issues to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
“Another complaint we want to make is in the area of gross connection. The partners and CAPs where Amina has interest engage in fraudulent gross connection activities. This is called kitchen activation. They buy SIM cards at N50, register them using a few people, load N3 to do chargeable activity and they will automatically earn N180 for each SIM. They do this with thousands of SIM cards daily and when they are done, they earn millions for gross connection. A month or two after, these SIM cards will be seen as having churned out of the network. Then they go back to the same circle, earning millions for fraudulent practices.
“All managers and above that resigned or took VSS in S and D in the North in the past three years left because they questioned these practices and were victimised.”
The anonymous group also alleged that a senior male staff member of the company is in the habit of sexually harassing female workers.
“Yet another complaint is that some ladies are being sexually harassed by Abdulhamid Hassan, a Senior Manager in S and D in Abuja. If they refuse to submit, they are posted to distant locations far from their families.
“Has anyone wondered why there are constant redeployments in the North, especially Abuja axis? Risk and Compliance should interview all female levels 1 and 2 staff in S and D within Abuja and the North to ask about their experiences.
“A lady called Rabi in S and D in Northern region had to resign because she was being sexually harassed by Abdulhamid. She told colleagues that she would rather quit the job than to submit. Even though she has left, Risk and Compliance should speak with her and investigate the matter.
“Over a year ago, a senior manager in Abuja named Auwal Abdullahi made a comment during a Northern region meeting as an employee council representative. He said that the staff were not happy with Amina’s management style. Amina was unhappy with the comment. She lashed out at him verbally in the meeting. Afterwards, his relative who was then a staff member in S and D named Maryam Bashir was targeted and dismissed.
“Hamza Ibrahim, the recently appointed Senior Manager in Kano, was promoted against due process. He came second at an interview many years ago and was placed on Keep-In-View, which is only valid for a year. But nearly three years later, the expired KIV is activated to favour him against other staff, who have a right to apply for the same job if it had been open for application as required by policy. This needs to be investigated.
“We urge the business to investigate these allegations we have made to verify our claims. We do hope our concerns will be addressed as these are big risks to the business.”
When SaharaReporters reached out to the spokesperson for MTN Nigeria, Funsho Aina, on Thursday over the latest round of revelations by aggrieved workers of the telecommunications company, he again declined comments.
Previous Allegations
On Tuesday, March 2, 2022, SaharaReporters published an exclusive story on how some female employees accused Adebiyi of sexual harassment while also knocking Chief Executive Officer of MTN Nigeria, Karl Toriola, of covering up the atrocities committed against workers.
In a series of emails and documents sent to MTN Group’s headquarters in South Africa between April 2021 and February 2022, the female employees, who hid their identities and only described themselves as ‘The Anonymous Whistle Blowers’, accused Adebiyi of being a sexual predator in the habit of using his position within the company to sleep with young female staff whom he often threatens with the sack if they failed to give in to his demands.
The aggrieved employees also alleged that Adebiyi had been using his position to plant family members and friends in key units of the telecommunications company even when such persons clearly lacked the requisite educational qualification and skills to occupy such roles.
The whistleblowers also accused the Chief Sales and Distribution Officer of inflating contracts, receiving kickbacks and inventing false sales figures to deceive the organisation’s leadership and continue to keep his coveted role.
The whistleblowers further alleged that Adebiyi used proceeds of his corrupt dealings in MTN Nigeria to purchase a house in Manchester, United Kingdom, and also built a multi-million-naira state-of-the-art school for his wife in Lagos.
The employees said that Adebiyi, despite his gross misconduct and acts of corruption and sabotage against MTN Group, had the full backing of Toriola and other top officers in the company.
Responding to the allegations in one of the email exchanges seen by SaharaReporters, Nerisha Singh, General Manager, Forensic Services, of MTN Group, said, “We assure you of our prompt attention to all the concerns raised and that the matters raised will be fully investigated.”
