By Friday Obande
After issuing a shutdown notice to 52 broadcasting stations on Friday, August 19 and its extension of the duration to Tuesday, August 23, 2023, National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, has announced its suspension of those stations.
In a statement signed by Director General of the commission, Malam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, he said the decision followed ommission positive responses from the debtor Licensees, including big players in the broadcast industry.
He explained that sequel to a follow-up meeting held with Executives of the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria, BON, and other critical Stakeholders in the industry, the commission decided to temporarily suspend the shutdown of the indebted Broadcast stations all over the Country.
He said, “We express our profound appreciation to the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria, the affected licensees and Broadcast Stakeholders for their responses and interventions. We, specifically, thank DAAR Communications Ltd and Silverbird TV/Rhythm FM for their responses.
According to Ilelah, the commission’s directive was never meant to jeopardise the operations of those stations but simply to act in accordance with the National Broadcasting Commission Act, Cap. N11, Laws of the Federation, 2004.
“The Commission is not unaware of the difficulties this shutdown must have caused the operators and other stakeholders, but must state that it will always operate within the National Broadcasting Commission Act, Cap. N11, Laws of the Federation, 2004.
Recall that the NBC, announced its intention to shutdown about 52 indebted Broadcast stations last week due to their inabilities to foot accrued bills owed to the media regulator.
