The National Broadcasting Code (NBC) fined Channels Television N5 million for allegedly breaching the NBC code on a show featuring Labor Party vice-presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed.
NBC communicated the fine to Canales in a letter signed by its Director General, Balarabe Ilelah, on March 27.
NBC said Datti’s comments on “Politics Today,” hosted by Seun Okinbaloye, on Wednesday, March 22, were capable of inciting public disorder and thus violated some sections of the broadcast code.
Ilelah said the commission had warned channels several times to consider the public interest before airing any of their programs.
“Accordingly, for the following breaches, Channels Television is penalized and will pay a fine of N5,000,000 (five million naira) in the first instance only,” it said, adding that any further breaches by the station would attract higher penalties. .
“You are encouraged to pay within two weeks of the day you receive this letter or the fine will be graduated.”
datti’s comments
Speaking on Wednesday’s edition of “Politics Today” on Channels Television, Mr. Baba-Ahmed called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria not to swear in Bola Tinubu, whom INEC declared president-elect, insisting that that declaring Tinubu a winner and issuing him a certificate of return was against the constitution.
Whoever swears in Mr Tinubu, Mr Baba-Ahmed said, has “finished democracy” in Nigeria.
He said, “Mr. President, don’t celebrate that inauguration. CJN your honor, do not participate in the unconstitutionality. I am taking these risks for the good of my country.
“Yes, it is extreme and I mean it. It was more extreme that Yakubu (President of INEC) issued that certificate (of return). It was reckless. He is endangering all of our lives. All of us.
“I tell you that on May 29, 2023, I swore in Tinubu as is this result, it has ended democracy, whoever it is.
“People who have not met the constitutional requirements cannot be sworn in. If you do that, you have done something illegal, something unconstitutional. And I repeat it, whoever does not comply with the constitutional requirement should not, should never swear. You said my name. If you like I can say it again. I am Datti Baba-Ahmed.”
Ahmed said the APC candidate had failed to meet the constitutional requirement to be declared president-elect, saying INEC president Mahmood Yakubu had endangered the lives of Nigerians by issuing Tinubu a certificate of Return.
“Swearing in a ballot that has not met the constitutional requirements of the constitutions is to end Democracy. Quote me about it… and that is, in fact, a correct interpretation,” he said.
“As extreme as it is, I am saying it on national television. I don’t like to take risks. I do not take risks”.
The LP vice-presidential candidate also claimed he has no faith that the judicial system will serve him and his principal, Peter Obi, justice.
INEC President, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu. Photo: Facebook/INECNigeria
“Not me,” he said when asked about his faith in court. “There is a certain president of the senate who ran for the presidency and lost and today he is declared a senator and the laws of Nigeria do not allow him to run for two seats. He was running for the governorship in Kaduna but I withdrew before the race and that is why I was nominated as the vice-presidential candidate on this ticket. Violated electoral law. Broken promises. Now they are inching to violate the constitution to the point that they will even swear in a president who has not met the constitutional requirements. And we should sit and be afraid and not talk about it. No way.”
However, Baba-Ahmed said that was not a reason for them not to approach the court, as there might be a first time the system would work.
“History is full of the first time,” he said. “It is possible that it is the first time that the judicial system works. Remember, I have suffered through the legal system. My House of Representatives, my Senate. I accepted. I can not do anything. And that is to underline the law in me. I am a law abiding citizen. I am a law-abiding citizen.”
Despite coming third in the result announced by the electoral commission, INEC, Messrs. Obi and Baba-Ahmed have insisted that they won the election.
They have approached the Presidential Election Petition Court to challenge the election process and APC’s Mr. Tinubu’s declaration as the winner of the election.
Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) candidate Atiku Abubakar, who came second in the election, also rejected the election result and approached the election petition court to seek redress.
days ago, the State Security Services (SSS) raised the alarm that some politicians are working to sink the May 29 transition by plotting an interim government.
The Presidency has also dismissed claims that President Buhari was unwilling to cede command to the president-elect.