A civil society organisation with focus on the fight against graft, Coalition Against Corruption and Bad Governance (CACOBAG) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to probe allegations of licence racketeering currently rocking the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).
CACOBAG, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Toyin Raheem, yesterday, claimed that information at its disposal indicated that the NBC Director General (DG), Mallam Ishaq Modibbo Kawu, recently allocated six slots of radio licence to his private company.
“We are, again, compelled to draw the attention of President Buhari and the Nigerian public to our disturbing discovery of how NBC DG allocated six slots of radio licence to a private company, Word, Sound and Vision (WSV) Multimedia Limited in the recent allocation of radio and television broadcast licence to private operators in the country.
“Information at our disposal indicate that Kawu, who is currently being prosecuted along with others in court by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) over a N2.5 billion fraud case gave himself, through his private company, six prime radio licence slots in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Kano and two in Ilorin, Kwara State.
“We believe this is totally unacceptable in a country governed by rules and regulations. This is an abuse of office and a display of cheer greed and racketeering. It is appalling that in a country of over 200 million people, an individual will take advantage of his privileged position as the chief executive officer of a public agency to allocate six prime slots of radio licence to himself.
“There is also a clear case of corruptly enriching himself by selling and substituting licenses to companies and people who never applied for them. We are, therefore, calling on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and ICPC to commence immediate investigations into these infractions.
“In this same country, when the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) was accused of non-declaration of his assets, he was suspended from office, we wonder why Kawu, who is facing trial on charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy, is still allowed as the NBC DG. We call on him to step down from his position until his innocence is established,” CACOBAG said.
The group urged President Buhari to direct one of the anti-graft agencies; EFCC or ICPC to probe its allegation against NBC and its leadership.
“While we call on President Buhari to immediately direct either the EFCC or ICPC to launch an investigation into this embarrassing development to protect the integrity of the administration as one with zero tolerance for corruption, we assure the public our ongoing private investigation on this matter is already yielding some more shocking discoveries about the level of corruption some officials of this administration are involved in,” CACOBAG said.
It promised to make some of its findings public in the coming days and urged Nigerians to join the vanguard to rid the nation and public offices of corrupt officials.
But Kawu, while deny allegations of awarding six radio licences to companies he had interest, said it was the prerogative of the president to award licences.
“You know I don’t award licences. All licences are awarded by President Muhammadu Buhari. I don’t award licences,”Kawu said.
Kawu further said the responsibility of the NBC is to compile all applications and forward to the president.
“For instance, the last applications, President Buhari approved 245. But we had actually sent in about 300 applications.
“After we sent in, they will vet and then award. The NBC does not award licences. It is the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that award licences.”