Uyo,
Nigeria, May 23, 2017--Nigerian authorities' demolition of the office
of radio Breeze 99.9 FM is a shocking affront to press freedom, the
Committee to Protect Journalists said today. State authorities in
Nassarawa, roughly 200 kilometers (124 miles) east of the capital Abuja,
on May 20 demolished the radio station's office and transmitter while
police shot in the air to disperse a crowd that had gathered to try to
save the station, according to media reports.
Adamu
Sule, managing director of the Nassarawa State Urban Development Board,
said Breeze FM was demolished for not having approval to operate in a
residential area, and that the station was notified prior to the
demolition, according to media reports.
Correspondence between the station and the board reviewed by CPJ shows
that days before the demolition, the board had told the station to apply
for a permit to continue operating. Breeze FM's management told CPJ
that they believe the state demolished their office in retaliation for
the station's broadcasts.
"Demolishing
a radio station's office and equipment in retaliation for its coverage
would be censorship in its bluntest and most violent form," said CPJ
West Africa Representative Peter Nkanga. "We call on authorities in
Nigeria's Nassarawa state to take all possible measures to return Breeze
FM to the air."
In
a May 17 letter to Breeze FM, Sunday A. Abason, the board's assistant
general manager, wrote, "You are hereby directed to submit forthwith an
application for Planning Permit from the Board, if you wish to continue
using the property for whatever purpose."
Breeze
FM Director Nawani Aboki told CPJ he received the board's letter on May
18, and that he went to the board's office the following day to submit
the application and building plans for approval. Officials at the board
refused to receive the application on the grounds that board employees
were on strike. "Yet the board's officials, who are striking, went and
marked the station for demolition that same May 19, and carried out the
demolition on May 20 by 8 a.m.," Aboki said.
Aboki
told CPJ that Breeze FM began broadcasting only in February 2017, and
that he believed the demolition was politically motivated because he
does not belong to the ruling All Progressives Congress party and
because the station aired a live discussion to mark the May 1 Nigerian
national holiday of Workers' Day, in which invited guests and callers
criticized the government for not paying state workers' salaries,
according to media reports.
The board first ordered Breeze FM to stop ongoing construction work at
the station in a letter dated May 12. A board official who spoke to CPJ
on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to
the press privately agreed the demolition was wrongfully carried out,
but directed all inquiries to Adamu Sule, the board's managing director.
Sule did not respond to text messages CPJ sent to his mobile phone number.
The
Nassarawa state branch of the Nigeria Union of Journalists condemned
the demolition as "an assault on the media and threat to freedom of the
press in the state," news reports said.
When News Breaks Out, We Break In. (The 2014 Bloggies Finalist)
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