By Akinwale Kasali
The President Muhammadu Buhari Government on Thursday morning descended on Channels Television. The Television station’s Licence has been suspended, and three of its members of staff arrested by Security Operatives.
The suspension of the Licence was carried out through the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC.
The actions against Channels and its staff are a consequence of interviews granted to them by two high profile individuals – Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom and a retired Navy Commodore Kunle Olawunmi. Both interviews were very critical of the Federal Government over the worsening insecurity in the country which culminated in the unprecedented invasion of the Military’s premier institution, the Nigeria Defence Academy on August 25, 2021 by heavily armed gunmen. During the attack which occurred at about 1.00am, five flats were broken into. The result was the killing of two officers, the critical wounding of one and the abduction of another. The abductors of the officer have, according to reports, demanded ransom money to the tune of N200m. This medium was not able to confirm this demand, but an embarrassed Military is in hot pursuit of the devils to rescue the officer, and has set up a Board to investigate the security breach.
In the interview granted to Channels, Ortom had alleged that a plot by the All Progressives Congress, APC, Federal Government to Islamize the nation and accused it of a Fulanisation agenda. The Presidency fired back by accusing Ortom of hate speech, capable of triggering genocide in the country.
In the case of Retired Navy Commodore Olawunmi he alleged that the FG is in the know of the sponsors of Boko Haram and Bandits claiming that a number of them are in Government and well known to Security Agents. He also accused the FG of paying lip service to the fight against the terrorist groups.
Both interviews have since gone viral on every social media platform.
In descending on Channels, the FG is using Section 39(1) of the constitution against the media outfit.
According to a source, “the move by the Government to shut Channels TV and arrest journalists is a dangerous regression to Decree Number 4 used to jail them during the first outing of Buhari as a Military Head of State.
“The government did not refute facts advanced by the guest, Commodore Kunle Olawunmi (retd.), that the Government has the names of sponsors linked to the conviction of Boko Haram sponsors in the United Arab Emirates.
“Rather than provide a concrete refutation, the Government is trying to gag the media by attacking the constitutional rights of the media and the journalist to practice their profession unfettered,” the source added.
It is not known why the anchors of the interview Chamberlain Usoh and his colleagues, were arrested, but Ortom is covered by a constitutional immunity. At the time writing this it is not known if the retired Navy Commodore will be invited for questioning by Security Agents or not.
It would be recalled that gagging of the media by this present administration has been on since it came on board in 2015.
In 2019, the Commission suspended Daar Communication’s AIT in the heat of the run-off to the 2019 general elections for being too critical of the Federal Government.
Also in April 2021, NBC suspended Channels Television for airing an Indigenous People Of Biafra interview.
NBC had said the IPOB spokesperson, Emma Powerful, made derogatory and misleading statements about the Nigerian Army.
According to the Commission, airing the interview breached the broadcast code. The NBC slammed a fine on the broadcasting company to the tune of N5million.
