A Non-Governmental Organisation, Coalition Against Corruption and Bad Governance (CACOBAG) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to probe allegations of broadcast license racketeering currently rocking the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC and Office of the Chief of Staff to the President.
This is contained in an advertorial and court affidavit by the group to back up its petition, which was published on various media platforms and signed by the National Chairman, Alhaji Toyin Raheem.
The group said information at its disposal revealed that the embattled Director General of the NBC, Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu in connivance with the president’s Chief of Staff, Malam Abba Kyari, recently allocated six slots of Radio licenses to Kawu’s private company.
“The Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari and the Director-General of the National Broadcasting Commission Is’haq Modibbo Kawu conspired and substituted, altered, racketeered and forged the names, addresses identity of the applicants.
“The number of licensees, who applied were 147 in number and 23 Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting Licenses, however many whom neither applied nor were in the list approved were substituted.
“Modibbo Kawu appropriated to himself 6 (nos) Broadcasting Licenses across the six geo-political zones, namely Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna and two licenses in Ilorin. His bona-fide company is called Word, Sound And Vision Multi-Media Nigeria Limited RC No 647641,” the petition said.
The group further said “We are again compelled to draw the attention of President Buhari and indeed the Nigerian public to a disturbing discovery of how the DG of NBC surreptitiously allocated six slots of radio licenses to his private company, Word Sound and Vision (WSV) Multimedia Ltd in the recent allocation of Radio and Television broadcast licenses to private operators in the country.”
The NBC DG is currently being prosecuted along with others by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC over alleged N2.5billion Digital Switch Over fraud.
The group claimed that the NBC boss made the allocation to himself through his private company six prime radio license slots in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, and two in Ilorin, Kwara State.
“We believe this is totally unacceptable in a country governed by rules and regulations.
“It is an abuse of office and a display of greed and racketeering. By virtue of section 15 (5) of 1999 Constitution of Nigeria as amended, we at CACOBAG are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to take immediate action,” the group said.
The Group added that it is appalling that in a country of over 200 million people an individual will take advantage of his privileged position as the Chief Executive Officer of a public agency to allocate six prime slots of radio license to himself.
“Your Chief of Staff and the DG National Broadcasting Commission have criminally abused trust, committed forgery and knowingly misled you to approve applications, which thereafter they manipulated and substituted with bogus, nonexistent even with companies that did not apply, all with the aim of serving their own personal interest.
“We are therefore calling on the EFCC and ICPC to commence immediate investigations into these infractions.
“In this same country that the Chief Justice of Nigeria was accused of non-declaration of his assets, he was suspended from office, we wonder why Modibbo Kawu, who is facing trial charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy is still allowed as the DG of NBC. We, therefore, call on him to step down from his position until his innocence is established.
“We urge President Buhari to as a matter of urgency direct the anti-graft agencies to launch an investigation into this embarrassing development to protect the integrity of the administration as one with zero tolerance for corruption.
“We assure the public that our ongoing private investigation on this matter is already yielding some more shocking discoveries about the level of corruption some officials of this administration are involved.
“In coming days we shall be making some of our findings public. Nigerians should stay alert and join the vanguard to rid our nation and public offices of corrupt officials,” the group said.
The Companies that were smuggled in by Modibbo:
Bigger Best Nigeria limited
High Fidelity Comm
Cooper Platform Ltd
Hattara TV and Radio
Oho Media Ltd
IZY Group of companies
Oracle Exclusive Services & Consult limited
TAP Television Network
New Radio Network
Seamaster Global Resources Ltd