Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar has kicked against the N5 million fine placed by the National Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, on Nigeria Info FM over an interview it had with Obadiah Mailafia, a former CBN deputy governor.
The interview saw Mailafia allege that a northern governor is the leader of Boko Haram terrorist group in Nigeria. His statement earned him an invitation by the Department of State Security, DSS, which questioned and released him afterward.
The radio station where he made the statement was fined N5 million by NBC on grounds the law against that hate speech was violated. In reaction, Atiku said that “it is absolutely repugnant that powers that be would instrumentalise the prevention of hate speech as a means of constricting free speech”. His statement read in part:
“We are compelled to react to the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission code concerning infringement on hate speech and the operational style that media houses should employ to conform with the new regulation.
“While there is no disputation over the fact that hate speech portends an existential threat to the enterprise of journalistic reporting and, in fact, inhibits the workings for a free society, it is absolutely repugnant that powers that be would instrumentalise the prevention of hate speech as a means of constricting free speech.
“Whether or not what Dr Mailafia said on the radio station was a false claim, it is outside of the objectives of a responsible regulatory framework to sanction a radio station for a comment an individual made, more so that the personality in question, Dr Obadiah, had been quizzed and released by law enforcement agents.”
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