NBC Boss, Modibbo
NBC Boss, Modibbo Kawu Debunks ICPC Fraud
Allegations
Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC),
Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu has described the statement of the
Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission
(ICPC) on investigations into N2.5 billion said to have been paid
to Pinnacle Communications Limited, licensed private signal
distributor in the Digital Switch Over (DSO) project as inaccurate
and misleading.
Answering questions from newsmen in his office in Abuja on the
ICPC statement alleging “misapplication” of the funds meant for DSO
by NBC, the DG observed that the ICPC did not have the correct
identity of the NBC which it referred to as the Nigerian
Broadcasting Corporation and also wrongly described the DSO as
dealing with the migration of telephone lines whereas it actually
had to do with switch over of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT)
signals from analogue to digital, adding that the statement could
not have been based on genuine investigation by the ICPC.
The Director General emphasized that contrary to the impression
conveyed in the ICPC statement, Pinnacle Communications Limited was
not only duly licensed as the private signal distributor for the
DSO in accordance with section 11. 2 (a) and (b) of the Federal
Government White Paper on implementation of the DSO after a
transparent bidding process and payment of 685 million naira since
2014 but was currently the “largest single contributor to the
successful roll out of the DSO in the country”.
He said the company withdrew its court case which stalled the
DSO since 2014 until the inception of the Buhari Administration
when it voluntarily agreed to support the new administration’s
determination to correct the infractions on its license under the
previous administration and give the new NBC Director General a
chance to achieve successful DSO by withdrawing its suit and later
facilitated the National Launch of the DSO in December 2016 from
its Mpape Hill Broadcast Centre in Abuja and the launch in Kaduna
in December 2017 from its Kaduna Broadcast Centre, both of which
had remained on air uninterrupted till date.
Malam Modibbo Kawu stated that Pinnacle was not paid “seed
grant” as claimed by the ICPC but for services duly rendered in
accordance with the White Paper on DSO adding that all companies
involved in the DSO implementation such as ITS/NTA public licensed
signal distributor, set top box manufacturers, content aggregators,
satellite provider, call center as well staff training received
similar payment under supervision and approval of the Federal
Ministry of Information and Culture.
By PRNigeria