APC campaign council asks NBC to sanction Arise, Channels TV over alleged fake broadcast on Tinubu

The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC)  has asked the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to sanction Arise TV and Channels Television over an alleged fake broadcast on the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The council accused the two media organizations of reporting a United States government’s indictment of the former Lagos State governor that had been cleared in correspondence between a former Inspector-General of Police, late Tafa Balogun, and Washington.

The PCC’s Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, said in a statement on Monday in Abuja that the council’s Special Adviser on Media, Communications and Public Affairs, Dele Alake, had forwarded a petition on the matter to the NBC Director-General, Balarabe Ilelah.

Onanuga said that both television stations had breached the broadcast codes with their actions.

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He added that the continued broadcast of a non-existing indictment, therefore, violated the NBC broadcast code.

He said: “The case in question, which did not indict our candidate, has since been overtaken by events after interrogation and correspondences between then IGP, Tafa Balogun in 2003 and the US government.

“The US Justice Department in a letter dated February 4, 2003, issued by the Lagos Consulate of the U. S Embassy cleared our candidate.

“The letter was signed by Michael Bonner, the Consulate’s legal attaché.

“The council was therefore surprised that Arise News and Channels Television, among others, went ahead to transmit and broadcast issues purportedly indicting Tinubu in violation of section 3,3 I of the NBC code.”

The PCC also accused both stations of using the already cleared document in their interviews of the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, and the spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Debo Ologunagba, respectively.

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