The Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) has said that the revocation of the licenses of 52 broadcast stations nationwide by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) over-indebtedness to the Commission was ill-advised.

The affected stations, according to NBC are said to owe arrears of licence fees amounting to N2.6 billion since 2015.

NUJ said that though the Director General of the commission Malam Balarabe Shehu Ilelah claimed that this development had no political motives, the action was ill-timed and reckless.

In a statement, yesterday in Abuja, the National President of the union, Chris Isiguzo, observed that this wholesale revocation of licences at this critical time of insecurity in the Country appears to be a decision taken without careful prior deliberation, consultation or counsel.

Isiguzo called on NBC to exercise more restraint on this issue in consideration of national security and allow for more dialogue and consultation to find a better way of dealing with the situation.

He said, “While we regret the inability of these broadcast stations to fulfil their obligations to NBC, in view of dwindling resources, we caution against such large scale clampdown of broadcast stations in disregard to security issues and the attendant consequence. We cannot afford the unpleasant outcome of such a media blackout at this time. We call on NBC to exercise more restraint on this issue in consideration of national security and allow for more dialogue and consultation to find a better way of dealing with the situation”.