The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on Thursday queried Channels Television over an interview granted to the governor of Benue State, Dr Samuel Ortom.
While appearing as a guest on Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, the governor accused President Muhammadu Buhari of trying to “Fulanise” Nigeria.
“What is happening now, to me, is very clear; Mr. President is just working for these Fulanis to take over the whole country.
“His body language is what is being played out,” the governor alleged while condemning the activities of herdsmen in the state.
“The body language, the action and inaction of Mr. President shows that he is only the President of Fulani people; I have known this.
“We are becoming a banana republic, if we have a president who gave the security agencies order to shoot at sight, whosoever is having AK-47 and the Minister of Defence came out to say that they cannot shoot at sight… so who is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces?”
He also described the president’s decision to review grazing reserves across the country as unconstitutional.
“I’m disappointed with the presidency. One would expect that we’re in a democratic governance and the presidency would have understood this.
“I think Mr. President was misquoted or he did it out of error. He should come out to apologise to Nigerians. There is no basis whatsoever for this to be going on when we have the Constitution.”
But a letter signed by the director general of the NBC, Mr. Balarabe Ilelah dated August 24, said Channels TV violated six of its codes during the broadcast of the interview.
The NBC said Ortom’s comments were “divisive, inciting and unfair”, adding that Channels TV anchors did not “thoroughly interrogate” Ortom.
The commission asked Channels TV to, within 24 hours of receiving its letter, explain why it should not be sanctioned.
The letter reads: “The National Broadcasting Commission monitored the broadcast of your program Sunrise Daily between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Tuesday.
“The programme which had as guest the executive governor of Benue state governor Samuel Ortom was observed to contain inciting divisive and unfair comments which were not thoroughly interrogated by the anchors.
“This negates the following provisions of the Nigeria broadcasting code. Consequently, Channels Television is required to explain why appropriate sanctions should not be applied for these infractions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. Your response should reach the commission within 24 hours of receipt of this letter.”
Meanwhile, the Department of State Services (DSS) denied reports that journalists from the broadcast station were arrested in connection with the ‘offensive’ interview.
Prior to the statement, there were unconfirmed reports that two journalists working with Channels Television were allegedly arrested by the DSS over a recent interview on President Muhammadu Buhari.
Denying the arrests, spokesman for the DSS, Mr. Peter Afunanya said no journalist was taken into custody.
“The attention of the DSS has been drawn to news making the rounds in some sections of the media that its operatives earlier today (26th August, 2021) arrested two (2) journalists of Channels Television. This is false and misleading. Fake news peddlers should shun the act,” he said.
