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VENO NEWS:MTNâ€™s Sales and Distribution Chief resigns amidst misconduct allegation
Date: 03-03-22

The Chief Sales and Distribution Officer of MTN Nigeria, Mr. Adekunle Adebiyi, has resigned, The Star can authoritatively reports.

Adebiyiâ€™s resignation is coming after allegations of sexual harassment and unwholesome practices were levelled against him.

A source told The Star that Adebiyi stated in his resignation letter that he is leaving the telco to go and pursue other endavours.

But another source stated that he was pressured to resign because the allegations against him could dent the image of the telecommunications giant.

Some aggrieved workers under the aegis of â€˜The Anonymous Whistle Blowersâ€™,

had accused Adebiyi of being a sexual predator.

He was alleged to have used his position within the telco â€œto sleep with young female staff.â€
The whistleblowers also accused Adebiyi of â€œinflating contracts, receiving kickbacks and inventing false sales figures to deceive the organisationâ€™s leadership and continue to keep his coveted role.â€

Also, another set of aggrieved workers under the aegis of â€˜Anonymous Concerned Staff of Sales and Distribution Divisionâ€™ have in an email sent to the leadership of MTN Group in South Africa and MTN Nigeria, alleged that Adebiyi, General Manager of Northern Regional Operations, Amina Dambatta, and some other senior officers of the organisation are involved in shady deals.
The email partly reads: â€œWe, 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 Plcâ€™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.
â€œThe 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.
â€œHere 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.
â€œShe 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.
â€œNobody ever questioned why Amina and Adebiyi approved for one person to own three different dealerships without it being declared to MTN Nigeria for transparency.
â€œThis 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.

â€œAmina 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.
â€œWhy 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?
â€œAnother 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.
â€œThe 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.

â€œThese trade partners where Amina and others have interest earn tens of millions each month. They earn more than other partners and they donâ€™t contribute as much as the others in terms of gross connection, revenue etc. Why the unfairness?
â€œOther partners in the region feel there isnâ€™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.
â€œThis 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.
â€œAnother 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.
â€œAll 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.â€

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