Abuja – The N2.5 billion scandal rocking the seat of power recently took a turn for the worse as the power play involved has now put the presidency on edge as it is taking stock of what went wrong in President Muhammadu Buhari’s first tenure.
Now, that scandal which
involves the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) appears to have
pitched the parastatal’s Director-General, Modibbo Ishaq Kawu, and his
backers in the presidency against the Information Minister, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed.
The relationship between the minister and Modibbo Ishaq
Kawu soured considerably when the Independent Corrupt Practices and
other related offences Commission (ICPC) investigated the N2.5 billion
scandal.
After months of dilly-dallying, the ICPC swung into
action last month and attempted to arraign the man behind the
finger-pointing, Kawu, in court on Friday, March 8, but he was absent in
court as his lawyers said he was sick and on admission at the
University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin, Kwara State.
Weeks after ICPC’s attempts to arraign Kawu in court, Alhaji Lai Mohammed struck again.
This time, he nullified the three-year licence which Kawu’s NBC had granted Details Nigeria Ltd, owners of GOTV
In
a letter of March 29, 2019, Lai Mohammed wrote: “The decision to renew
the GOTV licence for three years negate the position of the white paper
on the DSO (Digital Switch Over), making it not only illegal but a
willful disrespect for our laws and national institutions.
“Recall
that the Ministerial Task Force on the DSO, which I chair, had
specifically ruled that all Pay Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT)
companies would no longer be allowed to self-carry and would have to go
to one of the two licenced Signal Distributors for that function.
“That
decision was made based on the government white paper which puts signal
distributors in charge of transmission and separates them from content
providers.”
To show he was dead serious, Lai Mohammed added: “No
part of the licence fees paid by Details Nigeria Ltd should be touched
by the NBC until a negotiated agreement has been signed, subject to my
approval.”
Close watchers of the happenings in the NBC told Daily
Independent that, with the final paragraph of the minister’s letter
(quoted above), Lai Mohammed had actually served notice to all and
sundry that he did not approve any spending for Details Nigeria Limited
They
said he did this because Kawu had argued that Lai Mohammed approved the
N2.5 billion which was paid as “seed grant” to Pinnacle Communications
Ltd.
All through the weekend, Abuja was awash with the story that
the ICPC may have dropped the charges it brought against Kawu late last
month.
This was despite the fact that Justice Giwa of the
Federal High Court, Abuja had ordered unequivocally that Kawu’s lawyers
must produce their client on the next adjourned date this April, “even
if he has to come to court on a stretcher”.
Kawu and others are
facing trial in that case over funds meant for the digital switch over
system introduced by the Federal Government.
Now, another trouble
has opened from another source. Daily Independent has learnt that
anti-corruption agents have already been called in to look into this
latest scandal.
Source:- Indepdnedntng
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