Officials of the Nasarawa State Urban
Development Board (NUDB) on Saturday,
May 20th, demolished Breeze FM, a private
radio station in Lafia over alleged violation
of approved land laws.
It was gathered that police shot
sporadically at the premises of the station
to disperse crowd who attempted to resist
the demolition. It is reported that hundreds
of sympathizers arrived the radio station as
earlier as 6am, but no one was injured in
the incident.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after the
demolition, the Chief Executive Officer of
station, Nawani Aboki, said that the reason
for the demolition was political and that it
was aimed at gagging the Press.
“Due process was not followed. You
can see that the wall is down now. It
was marked yesterday and was
demolished this morning. Like we
said, he had a different reason for it.
Whatever reason he gives officially is
not the real one. This demolition was
carried out because I don’t belong to
the same political party as the
governor. He is afraid that the station
might not support his political
ambition. Part of the reasons is that
the station aired a report on the
ongoing Labour strike in the state.”
“We have the right to air the Labour
strike news. We even begged the
government to come and present it’s
part but they declined. I want to
assure him that what he thought he
killed will remain, will come back and
grow.
“Let him continue to do what he likes
but his time is also coming to an end.
We wish him well but we will meet in
court. We must remain calm in this
situation. Let’s not take laws into our
hands; let us ensure that we follow
due process and we all will meet in
court.”
Meanwhile, the National Broadcasting
Commission (NBC) has condemned the
demolition, describing the incident as
‘shocking’ and unbelievable’
Mrs. Franca Ayetan, NBC Zonal Director for
North-Central, who led a team on a
verification visit to the destroyed station on
Monday, said that the development was
surprising because the station followed
due process in obtaining its broadcast
license.
“The owner of the private radio station, Dr.
Nawani Aboki, followed due process in
obtaining the broadcast license after all
necessary inspections were carried out. On
March 31, when we came to commission
the station, the state government was fully
represented. If government had raised any
reservation then, as a regulatory body, we
would have waited a little more before
inaugurating the station. But none was
raised,” she said.
Ayetan said the NBC would seek for justice
in the matter, but promised to follow due
process in doing that. She commiserated
with the owner of the station over the
demolition, pointing out that the prime
reason for deregulating the broadcasting
industry was to give the people alternative
voices to bare their minds.
The official said that the NBC had been
monitoring Breeze 99.9 FM broadcast and
had never found a breach of the guidelines
of the Nigeria broadcasting code.
She said that the commission had never
received any complaint from any quarters
regarding offensive or inciting broadcast
from the station, since it went on air on
March 31.
“We are sad that this is somebody’s
investment being destroyed. We are also
sad that a radio frequency serving as a
platform for the airing of views has been
destroyed. A Frequency is usually given to
owners of licenses to hold in trust for the
people; this station has not abused that
trust. It has served the audience diligently.
We will support the owner of the station to
recover from this and continue,” she said.
She urged the proprietor not to allow the
voice of the people to die, saying that the
main component of the station was not the
physical building, but the voice and
broadcast license.
“That the structure has been destroyed
does not mean you should stop
broadcasting, given that advancement in
technology broadcast has been made
easy,” she said.
Aboki further said that some officials from
the ministry of lands had, on May 12,
inscribed “show approval” message on the
wall of the station.
“We then met with them on May 15, where
they raised the issues of my Certificate of
Occupancy (C of O) showing `residential’,
and suggested that the station should not
be there.
“We agreed at that meeting, based on their
advice, that I should apply for ratification of
the document only for us to see
“demolition” inscription on May 19, before
the structure was pulled down on Saturday
May 20,” he said.
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