Globacom heads to court over Nigerian deal

Nigeria’s second national carrier in telecommunications, Globacom Nigeria Limited, has headed to court to challenge the title rights of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) handed to its rival, MTN Nigeria, few days ago after a bid process in Abuja.

The Nigerian telecommunications firm (Globacom) has opted to pursue its claim from a legal standpoint.

SuperSport.com learned that Globacom filed a suit with No.FHC/L/CS/1565/10 at a Federal High Court in Lagos on Friday through its lawyer, Professor Abiodun Adesanya, a senior advocate of Nigeria.

Globacom is challenging the bid process and the award of the title sponsorship rights of the Nigerian topflight to MTN.

The Nigerian telecommunications firm is also challenging the award of the title rights to MTN, saying that it did not take part in the bidding process.

In a suit filed by Globacom, it is also seeking that the court annul the four-year deal of the title rights awarded to MTN on the grounds that it never took part from the stage of expression to the last stage of the bid process.

The suit also claimed that only two companies -- Globacom and Total Promotions Limited -- participated in the bid process for the NPL title sponsorship.

Globacom also argued that it offered N3 billion in the bid process as against between N1.6 billion and N2 billion being reported.

It is understood that NPL is listed as defendant in the suit while the trio of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the NSC, also referred as the sports ministry and MTN has been joined as co-defendants.

SuperSport.com has been informed that the case will come up for hearing on December 31, 2010.

MTN was named as the new title sponsor of the Premier League in Nigeria following its N2.6 billion bid.

Globacom was the immediate past title sponsor of the NPL until it pulled out of the deal in December 2009 citing unfavourable circumstances.

The Premier League has claimed that the Nigerian telecommunications outfit still owes it around N935 million for the last year of a four-year deal that ran out last season.