By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
Apparently dissatisfied with the telephone interview it conducted on Sunday evening with an acclaimed spokesman for the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), the federal government has suspended Channels Television.
It also slammed a fine of N5 million on the station for airing the offensive content on its primetime programme Sunday Politics on April 25, 2021.
The fines were announced on Monday by broadcast media regulator Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC), in Abuja.
In a letter to the Managing Director of Channels Television signed by the Acting Director General of the Commission, NBC, Prof. Armstrong Idachaba, the Commission referred to Channels 7pm live broadcast programme of Sunday, 25th April, 2021, in which it accused the TV station of allowing an IPOB leader of making secessionist and inciting declarations on air without caution or reprimand by the station, contrary to the broadcast code.
It also accused the station of allowing the spokesman, Emma Powerful to make derogatory, false and misleading statements about the Nigerian army, despite being proscribed by a court of law.
