Comedian Julius Agwu has dragged
telecoms giant Etisalat to court for
blocking his business line. He is
demanding for N100million as
compensation for jobs lost, contact lost,
for the inconveniences, and for being
mistreated by Etisalat staff. Below is a
statement from his lawyer, Festus
Keyamo...
We are solicitors to Mr. Julius
Agwu, one of Nigeria's most
sought after entertainers
(hereinafter referred to as "our
client") and on whose behalf we
write.
Our client is the owner of the
Etisalat GSM phone number
08189555555, which he uses as
his business line. On the 8th of
October, 2013, our client travelled
out of the country and returned
on the 17th of the same month.
Upon his return, he tried severally
to make calls from the
aforestated GSM line but same
could not connect. Not only could
he not make calls, he also could
not receive calls on the said GSM
line. This continued for some days
until he got a message that his
line had been blocked by the
network provider.
Sequel to the above message, our client
promptly visited your Abuja office at
Hilton to report the matter. He was
attended to by one Miss Joan, who
informed him that somebody swapped
his line. After our client successfully
answered the security questions put to
him, he was informed that his line had
been restored, but the credit balance
on the line was not returned.
Surprisingly, our client's aforestated line
was blocked again after he left your said
Abuja office. Once again our client
visited your office at the local wing of
the Murtala Mohammed International
Airport Ikeja, Lagos to lodge a
complaint, but painfully, nothing was
done about it.
However, after sometime, our client
was invited for a meeting at your head
office in Lagos on the 14th of
November, 2013 which he duly
honoured. Present at the meeting (in
addition to the officials of your
organization) was Mr. Mobolaji
Okusaga, the Managing Director of The
Quadrant Company, in his capacity as
media agents/managers for Etisalat
Nigeria.
At the end of the meeting, our client
was told for the umpteenth time that
they would get back to him, which they
again failed to do.
LOSS OF BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
It cannot be over emphasized that your
actions of unlawfully blocking and/or
swapping our client's line occasioned
loss of business opportunities to him.
As you are aware, our client as one of
the most sought after Nigerian
entertainers needs his phone line to be
easily accessible to keep his business
going. It therefore goes without saying
that our client has lost some business
opportunities as a result of your actions.
TAKE NOTICE that we have our client's
firm instruction to demand and hereby
demand the sum of N100,000,000.00
(One Hundred Million Naira) as
compensation for the loss of business
opportunities and the inconvenience
caused our client by reason of your
unlawful and unjustified blocking and/or
swapping of our client's Etisalat GSM
phone line.
TAKE FURTHER NOTICE that in the
event that you fail, refuse or neglect to
accede to our above stated demand
within seven (7) days from the receipt
of this letter, we shall be compelled to
set in motion against you, all legal
machineries necessary to obtain legal
remedy for our client.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
FESTUS KEYAMO, ESQ.
