The National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) has suspended a programme on Channels TV Politics Today for hosting a spokesperson of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) in a live interview in contravention of the broadcast code.
A letter signed by the acting director-general of NBC Prof. Armstrong Idachaba dated Monday, April 26, 2021, said during the interview hosted by Seun Okinbaloye on Sunday night, an IPOB official made several secessionist and inciting declarations on air without caution or reprimand by the TV station.
The NBC said the broadcast station contravened several of the broadcast codes and extant laws of the country.
It said Channels TV was “liable to the suspension of its licence and a fine of N5million provided in Section 15 of the code for its infractions.”
“In the programme, a so-called new leader of IPOB made several secessionist and inciting declarations on air without caution or reprimand by your station.
“He also made derogatory, false, and misleading statements about the Nigerian Army.
“This is reprehensible especially that IPOB remains a proscribed organisation as pronounced by the law courts of the land. This much Channels ought to know and respect,” the letter read.
The NBC also directed an immediate cessation of the programme and cautioned that “Channels owes the country the responsibility for a true professional and ethically guided broadcasting especially at times of crisis.”
