* NBC queries MD over Ortom interview
* Anxiety over fate of presenters Chamberlain Usoh, Kayode Okikiolu
Channels Television may, again, have incurred the wrath of the Federal government in the manner it has conducted its business lately.
The latest is the query issued its management by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) over the content of the interview it conducted with the Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, which the Federal government agency frowns at.
Ortom was a guest at Channels TV morning programme – Sunrise Daily – of Tuesday August 24, 2021, during which he fielded questions bordering largely on the security situation in the country, especially as it affects his State, Benue.
The interview has since become a source of controversy, with the Presidency accusing him of inciting ethnic and religious hatred.
Buhari’s media aide Garba Shehu had issued a statement saying: “Ortom, with his utterances, has been inciting ethnic and religious hatred in his state, thereby stirring up a Rwandan-like crisis.”
The Presidency also accused the governor of deliberately escalating the farmers/herders clashes and causing more deaths in the North central State.
The statement said the Benue Anti-Open Grazing Law was crafted to rob a particular ethnic group in the State of its rights.
Ortom chose the path of festering ethnic and religious wounds among the people in the State because of an alleged exclusionist agenda, Shehu further claimed in the statement.
Still incensed by the interview, the NBC, Thursday, picked a bone with the medium – Channels Television – accusing it of infraction of some broadcast codes.
In a letter titled “Notice of Infraction” signed by its Director-General Balarabe Shehu Ilelah and addressed to the Managing Director of Channels TV, the NBC wrote: “The National Broadcasting Commission monitored the broadcast of your programme Sunrise Daily between 7am and 9am on Tuesday August 24, 2021.
The programme which had as guest the Executive Governor of Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom was observed to contain inciting, divisive and unfair comments which were not thoroughly interrogated by the anchor. These negate the following provisions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
The regulator thus cited relevant sections of the Code, which the broadcaster allegedly breached.
Finally, it said: “Consequently, Television is required to explain why appropriate sanctions should not be applied for these infractions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.
It thus directed thus: “Your response should reach the Commission within 24 hours of receipt of this letter
Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports that security operatives have whisked away two journalists – Chamberlain Usoh and Kayode Okikiolu – both of Channels TV, in connection with recent interviews held with Ortom and another with retired Commodore Kunle Olawunmi, which the government finds offensive.
Olawunmi had alleged that some persons high up in President Muhammadu Buhari’s government are sponsors of Boko Haram insurgents.