The Presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, Muhammadu Buhari, has threatened to file a lawsuit against local television stations, the Nigerian Television Authority, (NTA), and the African Independent Television, (AIT), for airing hate broadcasts against his person.
Buhari lodged a protest through a letter from the Legal Director of APC Presidential Campaign Council, Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume, SAN, saying that both television stations must apologise publicly to him and also retract the “hate documentaries.”
If the television stations refuse to comply with his conditions, Buhari says he would not hesitate to take legal action against them.
The APC candidate also revealed that he had already petitioned the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission, NBC, and the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, to investigate both NTA and AIT over the hate broadcasts and take necessary punitive actions.
Buhari said: “The hate broadcast has been on from Saturday, January 24, 2015 to Sunday, January 25, 2015, at 11p.m. in AIT.”
Meanwhile, The National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, has enjoined all broadcasting stations to adhere strictly to the provisions of the broadcasting code or risk sanctions.
The Director-General of the Commission, Mr. Emeka Mba, issued the warning, saying that the Commission recognised the effort of broadcasting stations in lubricating the nation’s political space, however, some stations had began defaulting, by operating outside the provisions of the code in a manner that could become counter-productive to the national objectives of peaceful, free and fair elections.
Mba said: “We are in exciting times. Political campaigns are under way and the nation is agog with politicians campaigning to persuade the electorate to support them, this is how it should, that is the beauty of democracy.”
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