The NBC, on Thursday, June 6, 2019, suspended the licence of DAAR Communications Plc for failure to abide by its directives over the management of the content on its broadcast stations - Africa Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower.

The NBC accused AIT and Raypower of embarking on the use of inflammatory, divisive, inciting broadcasts, and media propaganda against the government and, the commission for performing its statutory functions of regulating the broadcast industry in Nigeria.

DAAR filed a motion before the court to challenge its suspension, and restrain the NBC from interfering with its operations pending the determination of the motion on notice for interlocutory injunctions.

The Federal Ministry of Information and Culture and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) were joined as respondents in the suit.

While ruling on Friday, June 7, Justice Inyang Ekwo granted an order for the maintenance of status quo ante bellum as at 30th of May, 2019, pending the hearing and final determination of the motion. The hearing was adjourned till June 13, 2019.

The court order means AIT and Raypower will be reopened and remain open until the substantive hearing of DAAR's suit is concluded in court.

While suspending both stations on Thursday, the NBC, in a statement, expressed its disappointment with the way and manner hate speech, divisive and inciting comments are applied in discussion of national issues in breach of the provisions of the NBC Act and Broadcast Code.

The NBC cited several incidents when it warned the stations, especially AIT, about the content put in the public domain, particularly Political Platform and Kakaaki which both air on AIT.

The statement read in part, "Recently, the Commission's monitoring reports on AIT/Raypower indicate the use of divisive comments accredited to the segment of "Kakaaki", tagged, "Kakaaki Social", where inciting comments like, "Nigeria is cursed, we declare independent state of Niger Delta", "Nigeria irritates me", "This country is gradually Islamizing" and other similar slogans are used without editorial control in breach of the broadcast code. We were therefore constrained to issue Daar Communication letters of warning dated May 27th, 2019.

"We also observed from monitoring reports that a documentary on the Presidential Election Tribunal, a pending election petition matter aired on AIT on Wednesday and Thursday, 22nd and 23rd May, 2019 without regard to the provisions of the Broadcast Code. The Commission, in line with its regulatory powers again cautioned AIT in another letter also dated 27th May, 2019."

NBC accused DAAR of failing to make proper amends despite its warnings and instead resorted to the use of media propaganda against it by actions such as posting its letters on social media platforms.

The NBC also accused DAAR of unprofessional conduct such as broadcasting patently partisan content to deliberately incite and heat the polity. The commission also disclosed that DAAR failed to pay licence fees as and when due.

"Needless to state that Daar Communications have over the years turned themselves into a bad example of how a professional broadcast outfit should not be run," NBC said.