Skepticus:


When we tell some of you that the Federal Government and BH are the same, some of you will be foaming in the mouth.

Better continue tweeting like the cowards that you all are. I trust the aso rock jihadist to ignore you all.

Skepticus:


When we tell you that the Federal Government and BH are the same, some of you will be foaming in the mouth.

Better continue tweeting like the cowards that you all are. I trust the aso rock jihadist to ignore you all.

Basoenewokoma:
Nigerians on Thursday lampooned the National Broadcasting Commission for imposing a fine of N5m on a radio station, Nigeria Info, over recent comments made by a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Dr Obadiah Mailaifa.

While some urged the radio station to approach the court and appeal the penalty, others noted that the singular action by the Federal Government and its agency is an attack on all media houses in Nigeria.

Last week, the NBC, while unveiling its Reviewed Broadcasting Code in Lagos, had raised the fine for hate speech from N500,000 to 5 million naira.

Mailaifa, on Monday, during a programme, Morning Cross Fire, on Nigeria Info 99.3 FM, had revealed that a sitting governor in the North-East region is a leader of the Boko Haram terrorist sect.

He was later invited by the Department of State Services in Jos on Wednesday and was grilled for six hours.

But in a statement signed by the NBC management on Thursday, the regulator blamed the radio station for the comments, noting that it flouted the NBC Reviewed Broadcasting Code which stipulates amongst other things that “broadcasting shall promote human dignity, therefore, hate speech is prohibited”.

The statement partly read, “Consequent on these provisions and in line with the amendment of the 6th edition of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code, Nigeria Info 99.3FM Lagos, has been fined the sum of N5,000,000.00 (Five Million Naira), only.

“This is expected to serve as a deterrent to all other broadcast stations in Nigeria who are quick to provide platform for subversive rhetoric and the expositions of spurious and unverifiable claims, to desist from such.

“The Commission wishes to put it on record that it will not hesitate to suspend the Broadcast Licence of broadcast stations that continue to breach the Code.”

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Nigerians have since taken to social media to lampoon the Commission for the move.

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A tweep, @NoahNwosu75, stated, “That is an attack on the media. Nigeria is supposedly in a democracy but actually in a dictatorship. The press must be free in Nigeria.”

@Humbleone001 wrote, “This is just to intimidate other media houses. Mind you, when they are done with them, they will definitely come for common individuals. I smell a big cover-up for something too huge to come in the future. It only takes a failed regime to be afraid of the media.”

@JamesOlukayode2 wrote, “Do you have to fine the radio station for this? Seems like a subtle attempt to suppress the truth. Why not investigate Mailafia’s claim and bring the accused persons to book and punished if found culpable? Please let’s run a free, fair and transparent system.”

@xstersy believed, “How can a piece of information that should gladden the government be considered hate speech, hate against who? A security report is not a threat to the unity of the country. NBC is just a puppet on strings.”

@frank_okeoma said, “If Mailafia’s utterances were not truthful, he would not have been released but have been in detention by now. As usual, the government in its efforts to gag the media fined the platform.”

@IkennaOkeh noted, “Every media houses should sue the National Broadcasting Commission for penalising a radio station for simply granting an interview to a man. This belittles free speech.”

@OB_HEXANE said, “Nigeria Info should challenge this fine in court. Freedom of information was signed into law. This is a callous attempt to bridle free speech.”

@nwa_anambra wrote, “I would have expected the Army, DSS, and security agencies in the North-East to work with Mailafia with the information he has. But rather, they are intimidating him into silence which has corroborated his claim that Boko Haram has a sophisticated network.”

@SenDonPius believed that “the media is gradually being silenced in this country.”

@Udehem2020 tweeted, “Truth is now hate speech? Nigeria is going down every day.”

@AyanfeOfGod concluded, “The fourth pillar of democracy is under threat.”