Court bars NBC from imposing fines on broadcast stations
A Federal High Court in Abuja has issued a perpetual injunction prohibiting the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) from imposing fines on Nigerian broadcast stations.
The federal high court justice who delivered the judgement, James Omotosho, set aside the N500,000 fines imposed on each of the 45 broadcast stations on March 1, 2019.
He argued that because NBC was not a court of law, it lacked the authority to impose sanctions as punishment on broadcast stations.
In his decision, he described NBC’s actions as ultra vires.
The Justice ruled that the NBC Code, which gives the commission the authority to impose sanctions, is in conflict with Section 6 of the Constitution, which gives the courts judicial power.
Omotosho stated that the court would not stand by and watch a body levy fines arbitrarily without recourse to the law.
He claimed that the commission violated the law by sitting as both a complainant and as the court and judge on its own case.
The court agreed that a subsidiary statute that empowers an administrative body such as the NBC to enforce its provisions cannot grant the commission judicial powers to impose criminal sanctions or penalties such as fines.
He also agreed that because the commission was not a Nigerian police force, it lacked the authority to conduct criminal investigations that would lead to criminal trials and the imposition of sanctions.
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“This will go against the doctrine of separation of powers,” Omotosho said.
Similarly, he believed that the doctrine was intended to prevent tyranny by concentrating too many powers in one organ.
“The respondent’s action qualifies as excessive because it ascribed to itself judicial and executive powers.”
In March 2019, NBC imposed a N500,000 fine on each of the country’s 45 broadcast stations for alleged code violations.
The Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda had sued NBC as the sole respondent in the suit in an originating motions marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/1386/2021.
The group sought a declaration from its lawyer, Noah Ajare, in a motion dated November 9, 2021, that the sanctions procedure used by the NBC in imposing N500,000 fines on each of the 45 broadcast stations on March 1, 2019 was a violation of natural justice rules.
The fines, according to the lawyer, also violated the right to a fair hearing under Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Article 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act (Cap AQ) Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2004.
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