The National Broadcasting Commission has begun moves to penalise a radio
station, Nigeria Info, over a recent comment made by a former Deputy
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr. Obadiah Mailaifa.
It was gathered that the NBC could term Mailaifa’s statement as hate speech and sanction the station.
The
PUNCH had earlier reported that the Commission recently unveiled its
Reviewed Broadcasting Code in Lagos and raised the fine for hate speech
from N500,000 to 5 million naira.
Mailaifa was interviewed on a
Monday during one of the station’s programmes, Morning CrossFire. He had
talked on the killings in Southern Kaduna, one of the parts of the
North-West region worst hit by banditry.
The interviewer had
asked Mailaifa if the government was unwilling to protect the people of
Southern Kaduna, to which he replied that some residents believed the
government was sponsoring the killers.
The former Presidential
candidate of the African Democratic Congress said, “Some of us also have
our intelligence networks. I have met with some of the bandits; we have
met with some of their high commanders – one or two who have repented –
they have sat down with us not once, not twice.
“They told us
that one of the northern governors is the commander of Boko Haram in
Nigeria. Boko Haram and the bandits are one and the same. They have a
sophisticated network. During this lockdown their planes were moving up
and down as if there was no lockdown.
“They were moving ammunition, moving money, and distributing them across different parts of the country.”
Mailafia said Boko Haram had already infiltrated Southern Nigeria, adding that their plan was to spark a second civil war.
He was later invited by the Department of State Services after the interview.
A source told our reporter that the DSS allegedly prompted the NBC to sanction the station.
The Zonal Coordinator of the NBC, Chibuike Ogwumike, said the station breached the NBC code of conduct.
But
he declined comments on the type of sanction to be meted out on the
station, saying only the director-general of the commission could talk
about it.
However, our reporter obtained a letter signed by
Ogwumike and addressed to broadcast stations, saying the NBC monitoring
team had recently observed a breach of its code.
The NBC said it
expected broadcasters to show professionalism in the handling of
programmes, saying, “The recourse to abusing, denigrating and insulting
the President, Governors, MPs and other leaders does not show us as
cultured people.”
Though the letter was dated August 3, some of the stations reportedly received it between Tuesday and Wednesday, this week.
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