Charity Nnaji:
Director-General, National
Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, has stated that Biafra
Television, is transmitting illegally on Nigeria airwaves.
According to CommunicationWeek, the TV station is
purportedly owned by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
Kawu also said the Boko
Haram insurgent group had commenced radio transmission via a station located
between Nigerian and Cameroonian borders.
He said that while
security agencies have been able to stop the Boko Haram-owned station from
transmission, Biafra Television is yet to be blocked.
Kawu said this is as a
result of the international transmission system with which the station is
using.
He warned against
revolutionary transmission, saying such unlawful act could threaten the
Nigeria’s unity.
“Last week, I was in the
office of the inspector-general of police and they had a TV screen and what was
being broadcast was on Biafra Television; they were saying some of the most
outlandish things, showing videos from the 1960s and abusing everyone,” he
said.
“Now, this is happening
and they were asking us (NBC) because our duty is to monitor and regulate such
but the television is coming from outside of Nigeria.
“Our engineers have been
making contacts with the international satellite organisation that does
broadcast to Africa about the fact that you cannot allow subversive broadcast
into Nigeria from other parts of the world.
“The Biafra Television in
the south-east, we have been tracking the station. The broadcast is coming from
outside Nigeria. We have been asking questions from international satellite
test systems where they are coming from. That is how it is for now.
“Last June, Boko Haram
was starting a new radio station, I think on 91 .00 megahertz on the FM band
from the border between Nigeria and the Republic of Cameroon and so it was our
duty to inform security organisations what was happening so they could take it
up and which they did eventually.”
