The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari, to inform the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, and the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, to immediately withdraw the threat to revoke the licenses of broadcast stations and close the stations down over their coverage of elections and post-election matters.
Recall that NBC had last week threatened to revoke the licenses of broadcast stations and shut them down, alleging that the activities of those broadcast stations were capable of undermining the peaceful coexistence of the country.
However, in a letter dated March 11, 2023, and signed by SERAP’s deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization had remarked that the last warning and threat by NBC if not immediately withdrawn, would limit freedom of expression and the ability to broadcast stations to cover important issues centering the 2023 general election.
According to SERAP, threatening to close down and revoke the licenses of those broadcast stations simply for carrying out their role was incompatible with Nigeria’s constitutional and international human rights obligations.
