Nigerian Government Suspends Channels TV’s ‘Politics Today’
26 April 2021
The Nigerian Government Monday order the immediate suspension of a Channels TV programme, Politics Today, for interviewing the spokesperson of a separatist group, the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra.
The National Broadcasting Commission said in a letter to the privately-owned television station that it breached the broadcasting code by allowing IPOB spokesperson, Emma Powerful, to make “secessionist and inciting” declarations on air without caution or reprimand.
“He also made derogatory, false or misleading statements about the Nigerian Army,” acting director-general of NBC, Prof. Armstrong Idachaba said in the letter.
“This is reprehensible, especially that IPOB remains a proscribed organisation. Please ensure an immediate stop to the programme.”
The Nigerian Government declared IPOB a terror organisation in September 2017 after series of violent face-offs between the group and security agents.
But the leader of the group Nnamdi Kanu told Channels TV then that the group was not a terror organisation.
When asked why the group was recruiting a secret army, Kanu said that his group was not recruiting any secret army, but a vigilante group. He said his group would follow due process in challenging the declaration by the army.
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