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From Magnus Eze, Abuja
The Federal Government has threatened to demobilise all broadcast transmitters that exceed their assigned frequencies and are clashing with others.
Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Mallam Is’haq Modibbo Kawu, stated in Abuja that several city-based FM radio stations in the country had exceeded their assigned 2KW transmitter capacity.
He disclosed that some of the licensees installed transmitters with 5-15KW power, adding that this ran counter to NBC policy of repeating frequencies in various cities around the country.
“Over 90 of such transmitters installed beyond capacity have been identified across Nigeria. Consequently, we have given all stations that installed such transmitters six months to procure and install the transmitters they were lawfully licensed to broadcast on. After the grace period, NBC would de-commission all transmitters that flout the law,” he stated.
He cited an incident where a powerful politician licensee from the South West installed a transmitter beyond the power allotted him; went on air before NBC gave him approval and allegedly unleashed thugs on the commission’s engineers who visited the station.
Kawu noted that this was an experience from the impunity of the previous period, stressing that acts of impunity were not acceptable in the present dispensation.
