Mike Ozekhome, SAN Condemns NBC’s Clampdown On Ait/Raypower, Says Its Brutish, Illegal

A human right activist and a foremost lawyer, Chief Mike
Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, Ph.D., has said that the news of the fresh
clampdown on the Nigerian media through the shutting down of the
AIT/Ray Power stations by the NBC is extreme, unconscionable and
brutish to put it mildly.

The law firm of Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, has also filed a
lawsuit challenging the shutdown of the media houses.

The learned Silk, made this statement Friday, after the shutting
down of the Television station and Radio Station owned by Raymond
Dokpesi, the founder of DAAR Communications Plc
According to Ozekhome, SAN, “ It is highly condemnable and shows
the jerky reaction of a government that has become increasingly
reactionary and intolerant of opposing views, dissenting opinions
and plurality of voices. This government wrongly believes that
every Nigerian must sleep facing the same side and from the same
angle.

“That is never possible, nor even desirable in a constitutional
democracy such as we operate, which admits of Dolly Parton’s “Coat
of Many Colours”.

The NBC’s Code and Guidelines are regulatory rules of engagement
with media houses that are themselves subject to the clear
provisions of the 1999 Constitution.

Section 22 thereof provides that the press, radio television and
other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to
uphold the fundamental objectives contained in chapter 2 of the
Constitution and to “uphold the responsibility and accountability
of the government to the people”. Section 39 of the same Nigerian
Constitution goes further to guarantee the right to freedom of
expression and of the Press and the right of every person to own,
establish and operate any medium for the dissemination of
information, ideas and opinions.

“It is these basic fundamental and inalienable rights of
Nigerians that the NBC through its mere Code and Guidelines seeks
to take away from the Nigerian people and from the DAAR
Communications group that operates AIT/Ray Power by shutting them
down.

To that extent, the decision to close down the television and
radio stations tantamount to a panicky and extreme measure, the
type usually resorted to by dictators or Absolutists. It is not
acceptable in any democratic society such as ours.

“How does NBC hope to pay and feed the thousands of employees
just thrown into the marketplace of unemployment through its
ill-advised action?
“When NBC started issuing a flurry of supposed warning letters,
DAAR was not in doubt that the NBC was simply being used by its
proprietor, the federal government and that it was merely working
from the answer to the question.

“The steps were carefully choreographed to dress them with the
fake garb of legitimacy and give their then imminent clampdown a
veneer and semblance of legality and legitimacy, having made up its
mind to shut down the stations. DAAR in reasonable fright had
immediately consulted our law chambers, and as a preemptive
measure, we immediately filed a suit on Tuesday, 4th June 2019,
against the NBC, the Attorney General of the Federation and
Ministry of Information.

“In the suit, we urged the courts to grant certain declaratory
and injunctive reliefs against the federal government from closing
down the stations. The government is well aware of o…f this suit
and the various court processes.

What it just did amounted to stealing a match on DAAR, so as to
present the court with a situation of a fait accompli. We wholly
condemn this disrespect to the judicial process. NBC is only a
regulatory body. It is not a Court of Law. Whatever grievances it
against DAAR ought to have been ventilated in the regular courts of
law in accordance with due process and rule of law. It did not. It
resorted to self-help. This is wrong and highly condemnable.

He is hereby calling on President Buhari and his government to
immediately lift the ban and clampdown on DAAR communications plc,
return its suspended license and allow it to operate freely like
other pro-government media houses that proliferate the nooks and
cranies of Nigeria.

“If DAAR is accused of having breached any guidelines or rules
of engagement with the regulatory body, NBC, as regards airing the
ongoing Atiku/PDP’s election petition (which is not conceded
because same has been in the public domain for over three
months),it is gravely and fundamentally wrong for the NBC (which is
supposed to be neutral to all Nigerians) to take the laws into its
hands and take sides with the Buhari/APC government, or their
lawyers, by fighting their battles for them.

“The last time I checked, we are not under fascism or military
dictatorship.”

Subscribe ToNairalaw News!