The President-Elect, Bola Tinubu, has written a petition to the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), asking the commission to sanction Channels Television for allegedly breaching the Nigerian Broadcasting Code during a recent interview with Labour Party’s Vice Presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed.

The President-Elect, Bola Tinubu, has written a petition to the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), asking the commission to sanction Channels Television for allegedly breaching the Nigerian Broadcasting Code during a recent interview with Labour Party’s Vice Presidential candidate, Datti Baba-Ahmed.

In the petition dated 30th March, 2023 and signed by the All Progressives Congress presidential campaign council Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, the president-elect had said: 

“In line with Section 14.0.1 of the Nigerian Broadcasting Code 6th edition stating the duty of the National Broadcasting Commission to accept complaints from aggrieved persons, bodies or members of the public and investigate as well as apply sanctions where necessary, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council hereby petitions the Commission on what it considers breaches by CHANNELS TV last week on its programme ‘Politics Today.’

The former Lagos State governor accused Baba-Ahmed of making several comments attacking the integrity of the 25 February 2023 Presidential elections. In the interview, Datti faulted the emergence of Tinubu as the President-elect and categorically asked President Buhari and the Chief Justice of Nigeria not to swear him in.

In his petition, Tinubu said the host of the show should have cautioned the Labour party candidate for making such unguarded comments and that for failing to do so, the station should be sanctioned.

The petition in part reads;

“He (Datti) said the Labour Party won the elections. This is a fallacy and not correct. According to the Code, a Broadcaster is liable when his guest is allowed to make a wild statement that is inaccurate and not based on fact. The only factual figures empirically collated as the final result is the one released by the Independent National Electoral Commission which placed Labour party as third.

The guest on the programme in question Datti Baba -Ahmed said the President of the country Muhammadu Buhari should not swear in the President-elect because he did not score 25% vote in the FCT…