No hand in Oziza FM closure, says Imo govt

 

.As Veteran Media Practitioners urge NBC to re-open radio station

 

From  Victor  Duruamaku  Owerri

 

Imo State Government has denied responsibility in the recent shutting down of a local radio station operating in Owerri by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

 

The Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Hon Declan Emelumba said all inquiries as to why Oziza FM was closed indefinitely should go to the NBC.

 

He described as unfortunate and unfounded the wild allegation by Chief Uche Onyeagocha that the government was responsible for the closure of the station.

 

“First of all I am shocked that a lawyer of Uche Onyeagocha’s  standing doesn’t know that there are rules governing the operation of broadcast media and that the regulatory body has power to sanction any station that runs foul of the rules,” Emelumba said.

 

He added that Onyeagocha should have remembered that sometime in February this year, the NBC slammed the same Osiza FM for employing a quack as one of their presenters.

 

“There was no Awo Omama incident that time so it is fatuous for Onyeagocha not to see a connection between the February sanction of the radio station and its present ordeal,” he explained.

 

According to him, if Onyeagocha was one of those who goaded the station to breach the rules, they should bear the consequences instead of making the state government the scapegoat and linking it to the Awo Omama incident.

 

He noted that the state government has no power to regulate the conduct of the press let alone gag them.

 

Said he: “It is either the man is ignorant or mischievous because the laws are there to regulate the conduct of the press and media practitioners. Governor Hope Uzodimma didn’t make those laws.”

 

The Commissioner regretted that Onyeagocha who is of the opposition PDP has found it convenient to disparage the name of the state Governor at every point.

 

According to him, while it was understandable that the emergence of Uzodimma as Governor led to Onyeagocha’s ouster as secretary to the government, he ought to have moved on and adjusted to the reality of his fate

instead of constantly engaging in criminal libel against the Government.

 

Emelumba said blackmailing the governor to gain cheap political relevance would never win him any election, rather it will continue to expose him as an immature, temperamental and irrational person, unfit to occupy an exalted seat in the red Chambers.

 

“My sincere advice to him is to concentrate on his already ill fated campaign instead of the consistent name calling of the governor. His popularity will be tested at the ballots,not on the number of press releases he churns out against Uzodimma,” Emelumba submitted.

Meanwhile, The  Association  of Veteran Media Practitioners has Condemned  the closure  of OZISA  Radio  Station and Urged the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to reopen it

 

The President of the National Association of Veteran Media Practitioners of Nigeria,  Mr  Ben Osuagwu in  official statement in Owerri Imo State  Monday, condemned in unequivocal terms the unprofessional closure of  the  OZISA Fm Radio Station, the Owerri Archdiocesian Catholic. Radio station by the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission – NBC.

 

 

The Association President described the the closure of the Radio station as highly provocative and unwarranted pointing out  that the way and manner the NBC hurriedly shut down the Station portends grave danger to the future of the Broadcast industry in Nigeria.

 

 

He said”  the NBC acted hurriedly without proper investigation, due process and above all primitively without considering the guidelines and set standard.”

 

 

The Association further stated, ”  following the news of the Awomama massacre of 14 youths who went for one of their brothers traditional wedding, alleged to have been murdered by the Ebubeagu Security outfit set up by the Imo State Government, the onus lies on the NBC to conduct thorough  and independent investigation with the various  security outfits  in  the  state to find out the veracity in the report , then come up with the result of their investigation and if the report from the station is found to be false, it can use the sledge hammer on them but if not the NBC should allow the Station to continue with its duty of informing, educating, entertaining, socializing, mobilizing and proper recanalizing the people’s attitude.”

 

 

Osuagwu, also  said, ” since the people whose relations were massacred said that it was the Ebubeagu Security outfit that carried  out the dastardly act, the NBC should have interviewed them and find out the truth.”

 

 

He noted however  that Security Outfits are

meant to protect lives and property of the  citizens and not to decimate them.

 

 

According to him,  the era of unbridled clamping down on media houses has gone and smacks of unnecessary wielding of the big stick  has also gone

 

 

Osuagwu asked ‘whose interest is the NBC  protecting, to hide the truth, and expose falsehood’ .

 

 

He said that even if it was the DSS that murdered innocent civilians in cold blood,and the media exposed it, is it justifiable or unjustifiable? .

 

 

Mr Osuagwu believed that  to all right thinking citizens, media exposure of wicked, violent, and happenings in the society is highly justifiable.

 

 

He  explained , ”  It is when such happens that the media will be said to have lived up to its responsibilities”

 

 

Osuagwu advised  the NBC to focus on international modalities and adhere strictly to international standard  on broadcasting and eschew crude mundane method they are applying in Nigeria.

 

 

He called for the immediate  intervention of the National Assembly to checkmate the mundane activities of the NBC aimed at gagging the media in this country.

 

 

Also he  noted that the NBC has in recent times tried to take back the media in Nigeria to herodic pharoahic era urging the National Assembly  to compel  the NBC to reopen OZISA Radio station without further delay