Suspension of AIT, Raypower: Height of impunity, tyranny, says  Timi Frank

Former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, yesterday joined Nigerians in condemning the suspension of the broadcast license of Daar Communications by the NBC.

Frank described the use of armed soldiers to seal the offices of the organization located in Asokoro as the height of impunity, tyranny and molestation against the media, which was the pastime of past military juntas in the country. He stated that having performed woefully in office in the last four years, General Buhari’s regime has increasingly turned predatory, exploitative, vindictive and rapacious against its citizens out of frustration. He wondered why a government that has not been able to solve unemployment problems would strive to kill a private business and render its employees jobless.

He warned the media to brace up for more attacks by the present regime saying that any media organization that considers the ongoing efforts to kill AIT and Raypower FM as an isolated incident should have a rethink. He also recalled how the DSS arrested and illegally detained Jones Abiri for over two years without trial. He urged Nigerians to resist what he termed a “deliberate and systematic ploy to gag and tame the Nigerian Press by Buhari.”

“Where in the world would can you ask private broadcast outfits – without public power supply – to renew their licenses with N500million annually and yet expect them to meet their running cost, pay salaries and keep afloat in an already comatose economy?”

He stated that the action of the NBC’s boss, Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, is not only targeted at killing AIT and Raypower but to run Raymond Dokpesi aground economically. He called on Kawu to reverse his directives and refrain from trading in the AIT and Raypower to stop his trial over charges of fraudulent diversion of a N2.5 billion seed grant for television Digital Switch-Over (DSO) programme of the Federal Government, dropped.