Staff of DAAR Communications Plc, led by the Founder of the DAAR Group, Chief Raymond Dokpesi on Thursday staged a peaceful protest in Abuja, asking the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Ishaq Moddibo Kawu to resign.
Dokpesi, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who first addressed a press conference at the premises of the Africa Independent Television (AIT), thereafter led the protesters to the National Assembly, NBC office and Ministry of Information.
At the briefing, Chief Dokpesi alleged that the NBC boss was against press freedom and specifically doing the biding of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the AIT in particular was under siege, claiming it witnessed high handedness of government as it was found of deploying all instruments of power to threaten, intimidate and harass the company because of his (Founder) membership of the opposition party.
“I cannot ignore that our regulator, the NBC today is under the leadership of a partisan politician. Ishaq Moddibo Kawu, the Director General of the NBC, was an aspirant of the APC for the governorship of Kwara state before the recently concluded general elections in Nigeria.
“Is he in a position to regulate freely and fairly? Is he devoid of partisan interest in regulating the industry? The fact that he lost his primaries and returned to resume as DG of the NBC is in itself despicable.
“In spite of a global broadcast network license granted to DAAR Communications Plc by General Sanni Abacha administration in 1994, the DG of NBC has stalled the commissioning of our stations in Yola, Awka and Sokoto since 2016 by fragrantly refusing the commission’s Engineers to inspect the fully built and equipped broadcast facilities for radio and television.
“The DG of NBC falsely accuses DAAR Communications Plc of being indebted to the Commission for a license fee to the tune of N500 million.
“Since coming to office in 2015 and in compliance with a well scripted program of action to shutdown the DAAR Communications brand from Nigeria’s broadcasting landscape, we have been inundated with letters from our regulator – the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
“Every broadcast which appears to them to offer a dissenting perspective to the position of government is reprehended as a threat to national interest. Every reference and reportage from various sections of the country concerning injustice, inequality and iniquity is reprehended as a threat to national security.
“I make bold to unequivocally call on the federal government of Nigeria to immediately relieve him of his duty at the NBC to allow the industry to breathe fresh air,” Dokpesi said.
