The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) may sanction Channels Television after Bola Tinubu, the President-elect petitioned that the TV station allegedly violated the regulator’s Code during a recent interview with Datti Baba-Ahmed, the Vice Presidential candidate for the Labour Party.
The President-elect had stated the following in a petition dated March 30, 2023, and signed by Bayo Onanuga, Director of Media and Publicity for the All Progressives Congress presidential campaign council:
“In line with Section 14.0.1 of the Nigerian Broadcasting Code 6th edition stating the duty of the National Broadcasting Commission to accept complaints from aggrieved persons, bodies or members of the public and investigate as well as apply sanctions where necessary, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council now petitions the Commission on what it considers breaches by Channels TV last week on its program ‘Politics Today.’
He charged Baba-Ahmed with disparaging the credibility of the presidential election on February 25, 2023, in several remarks. Datti criticized Tinubu’s election as president-elect in the interview and sternly urged President Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria not to swear him in.
In his petition, Tinubu demanded that the station be penalized because the program host should have warned the Labour party candidate against making such careless remarks.
The petition in part reads;
“He (Datti) said the Labour Party won the elections. This is a fallacy and not correct. According to the Code, a Broadcaster is liable when his guest is allowed to make a wild statement that is inaccurate and not based on fact. The only accurate figures empirically collated as the final result is the one released by the Independent National Electoral Commission which placed the Labour Party as third.
The guest on the program in question Datti Baba -Ahmed said the President of the country Muhammadu Buhari should not swear in the President-elect because he did not score a 25% vote in the FCT….”
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