Treasure hunt: Subscriber Sues MTN, Demands N210m
By Mike Odiegwu, Calabar
Saturday, 15 May 2010

A subscriber in Calabar, Cross River State, Mr. Obi Osaje, has dragged one of the leading Global System for Mobile telephone providers, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, to court over the company‘s treasure hunt competition.

The subscriber, among other things, is asking MTN to pay him N210m as damages.

Already, a Calabar High Court has fixed May 19, 2010 to begin hearing on the suit which borders on allegation that the company violated the rules of its concluded treasure hunt competition.

Osaje, who participated in the competition, is asking the court to declare him the winner and to order MTN to pay him damages for tort of deceit.

Specifically, the plaintiff in the suit is ”claiming the sum of N10m only being the grand prize for the competition” and ”another sum of N200m only being damages in aggravated terms for the tort of deceit, psychological trauma, worries and anxiety the claimant was exposed to.”

He is also seeking a ”declaration that the action of the defendant, its agents, servants and workmen in throwing open the MTN treasure hunt competition, an intellectual exercise, only to turn around after the end of the duration of contest to adopt other methods such as lucky dip approach; and in refusing to publish the phone numbers and scores of the competitors including the claimant herein.”

MTN had in October 2008, made open and published to members of the public a very enticing competition called ”MTN Treasure Hunt” which made its debut as an intellectual exercise for an opportunity to win prizes through entry to a premium rate short code 77777.

The competition was said to have been premised on strong assurances that the participant with the overall highest score at the end of the game would win the grand prize of N10m while those with daily and weekly highest scores would win daily and weekly cash prizes respectively.

http://www.punchontheweb.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201005152571829

na wa oo, everybodi wan sue . . .

Hon.sule, where u dey na, come make we cook-up something to sue emptyN sef, probably for not compensating me for using over 10GB on mobile in a month . . . .

lol. . .make we sue nepa,we dey pay bills and we nor dey see light

Me wan sue emptyN for the poor quality and lack of durability of their sim cards. . . . In the last I year, I've had 3 sim card registration failures (on the same sim. . .imagine doing a welcome back for a welcome back sim, lol). In fact, the most recent was last week Friday and I just went to the E-center to do a welcome back today. I've had my Zain and Etisalat sims for like forever and I've never experienced such with the sims. I'm beginning to think emptyN deliberately lowered the quality of their sim cards so they can have people do welcome back, lol.

On a serious note, me thinks the guy was greedy & gullible AND put too much stock in the promo but still, he has a good case. Why should emptyN shift the goalpost in the middle of the match. .? or was it stated in the said promo that the rules could be changed at any time?

i think its good to sue companies like that so that they can learn not to deceive us again.

our judicial system wil frustrate d guy

This is what you get when you want to be an overnight millionaire.Only God knows how much of his life's savings he put into the stupid game.

waleski:

our judicial system wil frustrate d guy

For sure.

9ja na 9ja the one wey dey vex me pass na zain naira rain promo.

If he gets that 210mill, I'll sue him for 200 mill for the tortuous act of causing shock and psychological harm I went through after seeing the story.

dunno if he has a case but good one- they will sit up now.

Trauma ko trauma ni.na to find case sue service provider,no be today mobile operators don dey chop masses money

emptyN in collaboration with some idiotic lawyers will frustrate this man.
I can't imagine a single man fighting the biggest network in Nigeria.

Make una nor blame the guy too much o. . .shebi na person like am hammer $1M for etisalat promo

waleski:

our judicial system wil frustrate d guy

From the story, I dont think the guy is an 'ordinary' guy o. He might be a Layer or something. Not just anybody can stand up and sue MTN for 210M.

semid4lyfe:


On a serious note, me thinks the guy was greedy & gullible AND put too much stock in the promo

I dont understand what you mean by these as I see nowhere in the report where it states that he invested alot of money in the promo. He played it but doesnt mean he 'put too much stock' in it.

inze:

na wa oo, everybodi wan sue . . .

Hon.sule, where u dey na, come make we cook-up something to sue emptyN sef, probably for not compensating me for using over 10GB on mobile in a month . . . .

. I dey kampe.I will soon serve them with writ of summons for their inability to provide 3G,and poor Network service in Bwari,Nigerian Law skol contrary to this statement "MTN’s overriding mission is to be a catalyst for Nigeria’s economic growth and development, helping to unleash Nigeria’s strong developmental potential not only through the provision of world class communications but also through innovative and sustainable corporate social responsibility initiatives."

? ? 210m dats a huge sum. Bros me, rem me if u win d case. I'l rem u in my prayers, But come 2 tink of it guy u dy STUPID 2 tk a promo dat serious.

;d ;d ;d ;d ;d

Deep Soul:

As long as it MTN, sue!!
Blorry armu robbers with their yeye Fastlink!  

And while we are at it, sue Nigerian Police too!
For causing unnecessary traffic because of N20 N100  

Many pple don't know their onions.

toluxa1:

From the story, I dont think the guy is an 'ordinary' guy o. He might be a Layer or something. Not just anybody can stand up and sue MTN for 210M.

True! Poor man nor dey sue for Naija. . ._{but make e nor be say im lawyer dey take style open office on top im head o}. . .

toluxa1:

I dont understand what you mean by these as I see nowhere in the report where it states that he invested alot of money in the promo. He played it but doesnt mean he 'put too much stock' in it.

By stock, I mean he attached too much importance to it and not money. Anyway, me thinks he must have spent some substantial amount of money playing the yeye game for him to resort to this course of action. . .Shey u never see people wey come on top Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and talk se dem don spend over 50K before getting on the hotseat? I mean. . .it's senseless for him to sue if all he spent playing the yeye promo isn't much coz the legal expenses he'll incure from the case alone is going to be humongous.

I'm watching

My brother was just complaining. . . Their technique was just too fraudulent! I guess they must have learned somethings from GSM scammers who send messages to people about promos and end up ripping them off!

I lost 100 naira to mTn, same goes for my bro. . . My mum just kept on sending the damn text message. . . I'm sure she must have spent 20k on that silly promo!

Omo. . . Me sef go sue mTn (Mobile Thieves in Naija)

The guy go lose. MTN and our lawmakers na paddy paddy. Na land of bribery and corruption be dis.

mtn ur best connection

It'd be really nice if the dude wins the case. It'd teach all those telecom operators to ease up on their fraudulent acts.

Methinks anybody who plays those gameshows need to have their heads checked.

How can anybody in this day and age fund million dollar vacation trips for an aging telecoms executive. . .how?

Hey! What a gud idea, i go sue eMpTyNet 4 allown us to dey use Operamini 4 free on our fone.
2. i go sue dem 4 kipn people awake 4 EXTRAWAKE oh! sorry EXTRACOOL
3. Yes! Finaly 4 poor network. (gues i go make money oooo)
190 & PWEETY4ME where u dey?

:-x

The man will just incure more expenses for himself.

I think GLO too should be sued. Infact na their own worst pass sef. Especially for that Win and . . . something promo (TEXT WIN TO 555).

dat treasure hunt, i no wan remember am at all. Na my money 4 school fees wey i take do am.Till now i neva get myself,na God go punish their papa and mama. And they stil get mind dey send me text for GO,another promo. dey don see mugu. Ndi ara

i pray you win the case.because mtn will go
all length to give the chief judge and your own
lawyer like 5million naira each, while you waiting to
receive 210 million. my advice is if you
reduce your price to like 12 to 15million
maybe they can just have mercy on you.

MTN get Messi skills but i be Lucio the i know trip for em at all.