The speaker’s SA misrepresented Hon. Emeka Chinedu’s 2021 Jungle Justice Bill. He utilised his authority to purportedly misinform the media, which later retracted and apologised for such distortion after Hon. Emeka Chinedu withdrew the Bill due to the level of controversy it produced as planned by the political opponent.”
The National Assembly provided the above clarification to clarify claims that the Federal House of Representatives will criminalise protests. Also praised the Federal High Court Abuja division for quickly halting the National Broadcasting Commission’s rapid march towards authoritarianism.
In a media statement, National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko claimed a letter from the National Assembly noted that Hon. Emeka Chinedu has not sponsored any Bill since this year and that such a Bill does not exist in the National Assembly. The order paper can verify.
The letter continued: “What happened is that the same individual who was defeated again in this 2023 election may have paid some Twitter tigers to make it look like it was a new development and it caught the gullibility of Nigerians again.”
HURIWA hailed the Federal High Court Abuja, which prevented the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) from fining broadcast stations on Wednesday.
Judge James Omotosho overturned the N500,000 NBC penalty on 45 broadcast stations on March 1, 2019.
Judge Omotosho believed that as a non-court, NBC could not penalise broadcast stations.
The judge ruled that the NBC Code, on which the commission bases sanctions, violates Section 6 of the Constitution, which gives the courts judicial jurisdiction.
He said the Court would only sit inactively and watch a body impose fines arbitrarily with recourse to the law, adding that the commission did not comply with the law when it sat as a complainant and a judge on its own case.
The Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda sued under FHC/ABJ/CS/1386/2021.
The HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA had repeatedly advised the NBC to quit usurping the Court’s constitutional authority by acting as a regulator, prosecutor, and judge in disputes with commercial television and broadcast stations. The judgement validates their position. HURIWA further noted that the ruling strengthens pluralism, freedom of expression, and the media’s responsibilities under section 22 of the 1999 constitution.
