The Chairman of Daar Communications, owners of AIT, Chief Raymond
Dokpesi says that the president-elect, Gen Buhari lacked the
constitutional powers to stop his TV station from covering his
activities. According to him, the decision to bar the station on Monday
April 27th was a reminder of the Decree 4 era which he, Buhari, enacted
against freedom of the press when he was in power
"I am sure that the President-elect needs to be reminded of Decree 4,
and he should be clearly reminded that section 32 of the constitution
makes it mandatory for the media to hold public officials accountable to
the people. The president-elect said that he does not want to be
covered by AIT, but AIT has a responsibility to the Nigerian public to
report the things that are happening.
"There are three national networks available for national coverage in
Nigeria, the NTA, AIT and Silverbirds. You cannot stop a foremost
private station from reporting in Nigeria, it brings us back to Decree 4
era.”he said
On the controversial documentary about General Buhari and his family
which was run by the TV station during the election, Mr Dokpesi said the
station was a private entity that could run anything that it feels is
fact and accurate.
"If they had produced their own documentary to say this is what we want
and AIT did not publish it, then that is another matter. What is
obviously very clear is the fact that AIT believes that the historical
information about the President elect that were ran, were factually
correct. Nothing was done to defame him or impinge on his character or
integrity.” he told Premium Times
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