Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project has sued President Bola Tinubu, over the alleged “arbitrary, unconstitutional, unlawful, unfair, and unreasonable” 50 percent telecom tariff hike by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
SERAP also joined the NCC, which recently approved a 50 percent hike in telecom tariffs, in the suit as defendant.
With the tariff hike, 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 to N6 from N4.
SERAP filed the suit, with number, FHC/ABJ/CS/111/2025, last Friday at the Federal High Court, Abuja, asking the court to determine “whether the unilateral decision by the NCC to authorise telcos to hike telecom tariffs by 50 percent 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 percent is arbitrary, unfair, unreasonable and inconsistent and incompatible with citizens’ freedom of expression and access to information and therefore unconstitutional and unlawful.
SERAP is also seeking an order of interim injunction to restrain 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 percent.
It also argued in the suit 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, impose clear duties of fairness and reasonableness on the NCC in the exercise of its powers to authorise the telecom tariff hike by 50 percent, which is the subject-matter of this suit.
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.