NBC fines TVC and Arise TV for remarks made about Tinubu, Keyamo, and Melaye

The Continental Broadcasting Services Limited, the company that owns Television Continental (TVC), has been fined by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) for airing “hate speech and incendiary statements.”

TVC was required to pay a N2 million fine by the Commission within two weeks of receiving the letter.

The admission was made in a letter dated Friday and signed by Balarabe Ilelah, director-general of NBC.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, conducted a presidential campaign rally in Delta State, and the commission fined Arise TV for showing it because Dino Melaye unfairly mocked the APC presidential candidate throughout the event.

The Nigerian broadcasting code was allegedly broken “consistently” by TVC when it came to covering election-related events, according to the Commission.

The NBC also claimed that TVC broadcasted hate speech and offensive, disparaging, and unjust remarks; the Commission claimed that this practise had evolved into TVC’s “house style.”

The Commission referred to remarks made by Bola Tinubu, the party’s presidential candidate, and a press conference given by Festus Keyamo, one of the spokespersons for the All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential campaign council.

The letter partly stated, “On 06/01/23 at 12:29PM, the Joint Media Directorate of the APC Presidential Campaign Council made the following comments while briefing the media. Festus Keyamo: ‘…Obasanjo and Atiku run a criminal enterprise, an empire of fraud in Abuja. At the same time that Ahmed Bola Asiwaju was toiling hard, beautifully and meticulously to rebuild Lagos, 2 criminals were stealing money in Abuja at the time… they both stole from the SPV account at that time.”’

It also said, “On 24/01/23 at 03:39 PM, during the APC Presidential campaign in Abia State, the APC Presidential Candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu after telling the public to vote APC under the symbol of broom, he went on to make the following comment ‘…You know what you do with the rest of them? They are like lizards, cockroaches and mosquitoes. Just take the broom, wipe them off.”’