A federal high court in Abuja, on Wednesday barred the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) from imposing fines on broadcast stations in the country.
In a ruling, the presiding judge, James Omotosho, said the NBC does not have judicial powers to impose penalties on broadcast stations.
The judge also set aside the N500,000 fines imposed on 45 broadcast stations by NBC.
He said the commission acted as the complainant, court, and judge when it acted on the alleged infractions.
He further held that the NBC Code, which gives the commission the power to impose sanction, is in conflict with Section 6 of the Constitution that vested judicial power in the court of law.
NBC had on March 1, 2019, sanctioned 45 broadcast stations over alleged ethical infractions during the general election.
At the time, Is’haq Kawu, then director-general of the commission, said the affected media houses were fined N500,000 each for flouting the provisions of the Nigerian broadcasting code.
Displeased with the fines, the Media Rights Agenda (MRA) sued NBC, in a motion marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1386/2021, citing that the action of the commission violated the right to a fair hearing under Section 36 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) and Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.
MRA had asked the court to declare the fines unconstitutional and null.
They also sought “an order of perpetual Injunction restraining the respondent, its servants, agents, privies, representatives or anyone acting for or on its behalf, from imposing fines on any of the broadcast stations or any other broadcast station in Nigeria for any alleged offence committed under the Nigerian Broadcasting Code”.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
