SERAP Vows To Sue Buhari Government Over Revocation Of Licences Of AIT, Silverbird, Raypower, Others

Civic group, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has threatened to drag the Nigerian government to court,

The group has threatened to sue President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration over the revocation of the broadcast licences of 52 television and radio stations.

SERAP on Friday in a post on its verified Twitter handle called for the immediate reversal of the government’s action.

“BREAKING: The Buhari administration must immediately reverse the punitive and disproportionate decision to revoke the licences of AIT, Silverbird, Raypower, Rhythm FM for allegedly failing to renew their licences.

“We'll see in court if this decision is not immediately reversed,” it posted.

The Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) had on Friday revoked the broadcast licences of Silverbird TV, AIT, Raypower FM, and Rhythm FM amongst others over failure to renew their licences amounting to N2.66billion.

The stations have allegedly not renewed their licences in years.

The commission said it had, in May 2022, given the affected stations “two weeks to renew their licenses and pay their debts or consider their licenses revoked.”

Addressing a press conference in Abuja, Balarabe Shehu Ilelah, director-general of the commission, said the stations had been owing the NBC since 2015.

Ilelah said the affected stations indebted to the tune of N2billion should shut down their operations within 24 hours.