Actress Salma Mumin says a failed attempt to get her manager to negotiate with MTN for an apology to be made to the telecommunication giant resulted in the organization’s decision to put out a rejoinder which automatically left her with no option but to render a pro bono apology for her post about its Mobile Money (MoMo) services.

In October last year, the actress cum entrepreneur was confronted with a rejoinder from MTN. The company threatened legal actions against her if she did not retract and apologise within 24 hours a post in which she said that over GH¢10,000 was “taken” from her MTN MoMo account without her knowledge.

While stating that “the claims made in the post are false and misleading to the public and the poster’s Instagram followers”, MTN in the public notice demanded an apology stressing that “The apology must state clearly that her claims that MTN Ghana had taken money from her wallet was false and given same prominence as that of her initial post failing which the business will be compelled to take legal actions against her.”

Three months after the incident, Salma claims without evidence that prior to the rejoinder, the company contacted her for an apology when the money finally reflected in her account.

Insisting that it was true her money was missing from her MoMo account, Salma mentioned that she indeed received “insufficient funds” as feedback when she tried sending money to DHL despite having more than the amount she wanted to send. After several interactions with MTN, the challenge was resolved.

“They said they were looking through their system and could see my money and that it wasn’t ten thousand but seven thousand, five hundred and something… They sent me their data, I checked and thanked them. And immediately without them asking, I went on social media to say my problem has been resolved by MTN,” she said but added that it was after this moment that the organization contacted her to apologise again because her action was injurious to the brand.

“If I had a problem with your service and now, I don’t have a problem and I’ve apologized and you feel that it has affected you, and you think I’m a brand that’s why it affected you, then you need to pay me to redo another post because that will be advertisement,” she said.

“So we were talking on the phone trying to reason with each other. She agreed that we do business so I told her I’ll let my manager contact her. Around that time, I was having an issue with my manager. I called her [my manager] but she didn’t pick,” Salma claimed, adding that she then tried reaching filmmaker Kofi Asamoah because he is good at negotiations but he also never answered her calls.

“They called asking where my manager was. She called again and said ‘It’s out of our hand, the pressure is coming from above’ and I told her ‘just give me a second’. I didn’t hear from her again, all I saw was the post from MTN.”

Asked why she apologised if her claims were not fabricated, Salma said her lawyer advised her to do so when they noticed the amount was seven thousand and not ten thousand.

Watch Salma Mumin's blow-by-blow account below. Her narration starts from 1 hour 33 minutes.