Ebun Francis|
The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) has explained why it failed to broadcast a live programme of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), owned by Atiku Abubakar, the presidential flagbearer of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 presidential election after receiving payment.
According to a statement by NTA on Sunday, its failure not to air the programme as agreed was due to technical issues and not political interference.
In the statement, the Director-General of the NTA, Yakubu Mohammed, said the station was “compelled to react to the misinformation from the Atiku Media Office, alleging that NTA deliberately and under instruction from the Presidency, refused to broadcast live, the 13th anniversary ceremony of the American University of Nigeria, Yola because of ‘conspiracy at work from the NTA headquarters and working the script of the Federal government and President Muhammadu Buhari.”
“This is not only far from the truth but very uncharitable,” Mr. Mohammed said.
“While it is true that NTA received payment for the live coverage, it is also true that the NTA mobilised and deployed its Outside Broadcast crew from Jos to Yola for the coverage.
“The crew from Jos got to the location in good time and carried out equipment test and as well uplink and downlink test which confirmed that the signals are in good condition. Few hours to the event DOMSAT (Domestic satellite station at NTA Headquarters) called to report of not receiving Signals. But the uplink was sending out adequate power while DOMSAT was not receiving the signal.
“All the uplink equipment are in good working conditions and the downlink equipment also in good working condition. The only factor is the satellite service provider, INTELSAT. DOMSAT had made similar report which the Head of SATCOM had sent a report to INTELSAT and we are awaiting the report. This is a new development and new challenge which we would look at critically and localize the fault and ensure it does not reoccur. It should, however, be noted that the NTA TRANSMITTED THE AUN EVENT SOON AFTER IT OVERCAME THE TECHNICAL GLITCH IT EXPERIENCED.”
“NTA wishes to inform Nigerians that it has never been dictated to by the presidency in the course of discharging its responsibility since the current management came on board.
“The NTA also wishes to appeal to politicians to please leave it out of politics. NTA is a public broadcaster that belongs to all and will discharge its mandate according to the law establishing it,” he said.