The federal government has disowned the out of court settlement offer by telecoms firm MTN over the $3.4 billion fine slammed on it in December last year.

MTN was fined $5.2bn by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in October for regulatory infractions, but later reduced it to $3.4 billion but MTN later went to court to challenge the fine.

The company on Friday issued a statement, saying it would now settle the case with the government out of court.

But the minister of communications Barrister Adebayo on Tuesday in Abuja said the federal government was not aware of any out of court settlement over the fine.

“We are not aware of any out of court settlement on the issue. We will not accept out of court settlement until MTN willingly discontinue the case”, Adebayo said at a press conference where he unveiled the new ICT road map for 2016-2020.

He said MTN wanted to buy time by taking the federal government to court instead of paying the fine.

The government would slug it out with the company to the final point, he said.