Closure Of Media Houses Illegal - NBC, NUJ Blast Governor Matawalle

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Closure Of Media Houses Illegal - NBC, NUJ Blast Governor Matawalle

The governor of Zamfara state, Bello Muhammad Matawalle has been asked to immediately reopen media houses he closed in his state.

The National Broadcasting Commission said this after Matawalle had claimed he closed down the media houses based on security reasons.

Reacting, NBC asked the governor to tender an apology as he has no power to give such order.

NBC, which is the federal government agency in charge of regulations of broadcast media in the country, said the shutdown of operations of some of its licensees by the Zamfara state government is illegal. 

The agency in a statement on Sunday signed by its Director General Balarabe Shehu Ilelah urged the state government to hasten to reverse the closure and apologise to the citizens of the state. 

“The NBC has clearly notified the state government of the gravity of the illegality and requested it to expeditiously reverse the directive and apologise to the people of the state,” Ilelah said. 

The NBC boss also said the commission would resist any attempt to cause a breach of law and order through the misuse of broadcast media before, during, and after the 2023 elections. 

Similarly, the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) has condemned the action, calling it an “embarrassing error” by the state government. 

NUJ’s national secretary, Shuaibu Usman Leman, in a statement urged the state to immediately rescind the decision to shut down the media organisations. 

“For a state government to arbitrarily override a section of the Nigerian Constitution and the NBC code, in a democracy like ours, which recognises the role of the mass media, and freedom of expression for its citizens speaks volumes of the level of impunity the country has descended into,” Leman said. 

Also, the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON) in a statement signed by its executive secretary Dr. Yemisi Bamgbose said the Zamfara state government had carried its power too far by shutting some broadcast stations in the state. 

Bamgbose condemned the closure and called for its reversal with immediate effect.