The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) has announced the temporary suspension of the move to shut down the indebted television and radio stations across Nigeria.
The NBC Director General, Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, announced the suspension in a statement on Friday.
Ilelah made the announcement three days after the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) instituted a lawsuit against the commission and President Muhammadu Buhari over the revocation of the licences of 53 TV and radio stations in Nigeria.
The NBC had last week threatened to shut down the operations of the affected stations within 24 hours over alleged N2.6 billion debts.
In a statement, the NBC asked the stations ‘to pay all outstanding licence fees on or before August 23, 2022, or shut down by 12am on August 24’.
But in the suit number FHC/L/CS/1582/2022, filed at the Federal High Court, Lagos, SERAP and NGE asked the court for ‘a declaration that section 10(a) of the Third Schedule to the National Broadcasting Act used by NBC to threaten to revoke the licenses of 53 broadcast stations and to shut down the broadcast stations is unconstitutional and unlawful, as it violates freedom of expression’.
In a similar reaction to the NBC action, Media Rights Agenda (MRA) urged the commission to reverse its decision in the public interest to avoid creating a society of predominantly ignorant citizens.
However, Ilelah maintained that positive responses received from the debtor licensees was responsible for the temporary suspension.
‘Sequel to a follow-up meeting held with executives of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), and other critical stakeholders in the industry, the commission has decided to temporarily suspend the shutdown of the indebted broadcast stations all over the country’, the statement read.
‘We express our profound appreciation to the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria, the affected licensees and broadcast stakeholders for their responses and interventions. We, specifically, thank DAAR Communications Ltd and Silverbird TV/Rhythm FM for their responses.
‘The commission is not unaware of the difficulties this shutdown must have caused the operators and other stakeholders but must state that the commission will always operate within the National Broadcasting Commission Act, Cap. N11, Laws of the Federation, 2004’.
Photo source: NBC
