Appeal Court affirms dismissal of NBC's fines against 45 broadcast stations

The Court of Appeal in Abuja on Thursday dismissed an appeal by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) challenging a judgement of the Federal High Court restraining it from imposing fines on broadcast stations.

The appellate court upheld the earlier ruling which set aside fines imposed by the commission on 45 stations in 2019 for alleged breaches of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.

According to a statement by Idowu Adewale, communications officer, Media Rights Agenda (MRA), the court’s panel ruled unanimously “that the NBC’s appeal lacked merit and dismissed it.”

The presiding justice, Oyejoju Oyebiola Oyewumi, upheld the argument of MRA’s lawyer, Ezenwa Anumnu, that having failed to challenge the suit at the Federal High Court, the NBC could not now challenge it at the Court of Appeal.”

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She ruled that NBC’s appeal lacked merit and dismissed it.

The statement said the two other judges who sat on the panel, Abba Bello Mohammed and Donatus Uwaezuoke Okorowo, agreed with Ms Oyewumi.

Why MRA filed the suit

On 1 March 2019, NBC announced that it had imposed a fine of N500,000 each on 45 broadcast stations for alleged contraventions of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code.

But MRA challenged the commission’s powers to impose fines in court.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the Federal High Court in Abuja on 10 May 2023 gave an order of perpetual injunction restraining NBC from imposing the fines henceforth on broadcast stations in the country.

The judge, James Omotosho, in a judgement, also set aside the N500,000 fines imposed on the 45 broadcast stations.

The judge ruled that fines are sanctions imposed on a person who has been found guilty of a criminal offence.

Mr Omotosho added that under the law in Nigeria, only courts of law are empowered to impose sanctions for criminal offences.

He noted that the commission’s action violated the Nigerian constitution because NBC “is neither a court nor a judicial tribunal to make pronouncements on the guilt of broadcast stations notwithstanding what the NBC Code says.”

Meanwhile, In July that year, NBC also filed a motion seeking that the judge set aside the judgement on the grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction and made the decision in ignorance of relevant facts.

However, on 23 November 2023, the judge dismissed the motion.

According to MRA, the judge described the motion “as futile and an afterthought, as available evidence showed that the Commission was served with the court’s processes but chose not to appear before the court to defend the suit.”

Displeased with the Federal High Court judgement, NBC proceeded to the Court of Appeal.

The commission asked the appellate court to overturn the 10 May 2023 judgement.

“At the hearing of the appeal on 4 February 2026, Mr Victor Ogude (SAN), leading Mr Kehinde Wilkey on behalf of the NBC, formally adopted his brief of argument and advanced additional submissions, after which Mr Ezenwa Anumnu, representing MRA, did the same,” theMRA statement said.

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MRA said Thursday’s judgement means it has won the first of “two appeals between it and the NBC over two judgments of the Federal High Court, presided over by two separate judges, prohibiting the Commission from further imposing fines on broadcast stations.”

It noted that a second appeal by the NBC against a similar judgment on 17 January 2024, delivered by Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, also of the Federal High Court in Abuja, is still pending before the same court.

It further explained in it’s statement that in that appeal, the Commission is contesting the judge’s decision in a suit instituted against it by MRA following its imposition of fines of “N5 million each on a television station and three pay TV platforms in 2022 for allegedly undermining Nigeria’s national security by broadcasting documentaries on banditry in Nigeria.”