Court Order On NBC: It's Dead On Arrival-Ministry of Information

The Director, Legal Department, Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Mr. Nelson Orji, has described the judgement of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which stopped the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation from imposing fines on erring broadcast stations as "dead-on-arrival ill-conceived."

Orji made the declaration while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.

He said the judgement is at variance with a Federal High Court, Abuja, which earlier ruled that the NBC had the power to impose sanctions on erring stations.

According to Orji, Justice N. E. Maha, gave the ruling in April 2022, in a case brought against NBC by seven organisations led by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, citing section 2(1)(n) of the NBC Act of 1992. 

Among others, the section states that “The Commission shall have the responsibility of determining and applying sanctions, including revocation of licences of defaulting stations, which do not operate in accordance with the broadcast code and in public interest.”

While relying on the provision, Justice Maha ruled that, “The law is settled that a regulator imposing fines under its enabling law in the discharge of its functions could not have acted unconstitutionally.

The judge further noted that “In Moses Ediru v Federal Road Safety Commission and 20 ors(supra) the court held that the FRSC Act gives the Commission the right to impose and enforce sanctions and such right does not derogate from the judicial powers of the court as provided in the constitution.

“In essence, there is no confluence point where the powers of FRSC and that of the court meet.

“In that Moses Ediru case, the court further observed that FRSC and the court are mutually exclusive such that the FRSC powers of enforcement of sanctions is not an usurpation of the judicial powers of the court.”

Orji maintained that conflicting decisions by courts of coordinate jurisdiction existed on the matter of whether or not the NBC can impose sanctions on erring broadcast stations, adding that “where there is conflicting decision of courts of coordinate jurisdiction, a party can choose which of them to obey and it will not be held in contempt of any court.

“It is worthy of note that the judgement of Justice Maha is first in time and still subsisting as it has not been set aside by any appellate court.

“In this light, NBC is still well within its right to continue to impose sanctions on broadcast organisations which run fowl of the NBC code.”

According to Orji, the case against the 45 erring stations were strict liability Offences, pointing out that they had all complied by paying their fines.

He noted that if Justice James Omotosho's judgement was allowed to stand, it would mean that government agencies such as the NBC, FRSC, and Quarantine Services, would be rendered redundant.

In a suit filed by the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda, Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had held that the NBC lacked the power to impose fines on broadcast stations.

He also voided the ₦500,000 fine imposed on the 45 broadcast stations on the ground that NBC, not being a court of law, lacked the power to impose sanctions. He ruled that the NBC Code, which vested the power to sanctions on the Commission is at variance with Section 6(6) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, which vested such judicial powers on the court of law.