Suspension of AIT, Raypower licenses height of tyranny, Timi Frank says

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Comrade Timi Frank, has condemned the suspension of the broadcast licence of Daar Communications – owners of the African Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower FM – by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

The Director-General of NBC, Modibbo Kawu, who announced the shut down on Thursday, said the action was taken for failure of the broadcasting station to abide by the broadcasting code.

However, Frank, in a statement in Abuja described the “illegal” use of armed soldiers to seal the offices of the organisation located in Pasuma Hills, Asokoro as the height of impunity, tyranny and molestation against the Nigerian Media.

He noted that such action was the pastime of military juntas in the country.

“This represents an unfortunate and lamentable oppression of the media and direct suppression of Press Freedom in the country by the General Muhammadu Buhari regime which must not be allowed to stand,” he said.

Frank in the statement further argued that “having performed woefully in office in the last four years, the President Buhari administration has increasingly turned predatory, exploitative, vindictive and rapacious against its citizens out of frustration.

“The ongoing pacification, intimidation and emasculation of the Nigerian Media to confer totalitarian powers on the General Muhammadu Buhari’s regime and enable it to ride roughshod over Nigerians without censure or criticism.”

The former deputy national publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress expressed concern that a government that has not been able to solve five per cent of the humongous unemployed situation in the country would embark on acts that can directly kill a business concern and render all its employees jobless.

“This unfortunate action, I dare say, marks the beginning of the #NextLevel policy of intimidation and persecution of the Nigerian media by the General Buhari’s regime.

“Make no mistakes, this closure is meant to serve as a lesson to other media houses and forcefully stop them from exposing Buhari’s ineptitude and cluelessness in governance to members of the public.”

He further alerted the media to brace up for more ferocious attacks by the present administration saying that “any media organisation that considers the ongoing efforts to “kill” AIT and Raypower FM as an isolated incident should have a rethink.

“In January this year, armed soldiers invaded and occupied the offices of Media Trust Limited – Publishers of the Daily Trust Newspapers – in Maiduguri and Abuja, seized their laptops, computers, arrested and detained its top reporters and editors.

“We must not also forget the illegal detention of a Premium Times journalist, Samuel Ogundipe, for three days for publishing a story from a report on the invasion of the Senate authored by the immediate past IGP, Ibrahim Idris, to the President.”

He also recalled how the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested and illegally detained Jones Abiri – publisher of Weekly Source newspaper, based in Bayelsa State for over two years without trial.

He urged Nigerians to resist what he termed a “deliberate and systematic ploy to gag and tame the Nigerian Press by Buhari.”

“Freedom of the press remains one of the indispensable indices of any genuine democratic governance. Those who trample on press freedom have invariably trampled on democracy and the inalienable rights and freedom of the people.”

“Where in the world can you ask private broadcast outfits – without public power supply – to renew their licenses with N500 million annually and yet expect them to meet their running cost, pay salaries and keep afloat in an already comatose economy?”

He stated that the action of the NBC’s boss, Mallam Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, is not only targeted at killing AIT and Raypower but to run the founder and Chairman Emeritus of DAAR Communications Plc, Chief Raymond Dokpesi – a chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – aground economically.

He admonished the military to remain professional by concentrating on their constitutional mandate which is to defend the territorial integrity of the country instead of lending itself to doing police work for the present regime.