Members of the Board of Directors of the
National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) have justified the actions they
took in selling a radio spectrum worth N34 billion and paying a
commission of N3.4 billion to the consultants, saying that it was the
best action taken to raise money for Digital Switch Over in Nigeria.
The members, including the former
Director General of the commission, Emeka Mba, had been summoned to
appear before the EFCC to answer questions on why they hastily paid out
the sum of N3.4 billion to the technical consultant engaged by the board
even before presidential approval was sought and obtained.
The others invited by the EFCC to appear
this week are: Professor Herbert Orji (Chairman), Mohammed Kabir Umar,
Mike Iheanetu, Yakubu Busa Buji, Ebenezer Ayorinde, Isa Badamasi Dahiru,
Prince Dennis Sam, Jude Nnodum (SAN), and Peter Dama; as well as Basil
Udotai, and Technology Advisors LLP.
The members who wrote the EFCC through their lawyer, Chief Ogwu Onoja
(SAN), objected strongly to the approach adopted by the EFCC to invite
them to answer to their actions while in office through the media,
describing it as a media trial.
The members, whose appointments were
terminated in July last year, said they should be given national honours
for their ingenuity in raising the bar in digital transmission rather
than being chastised through media trial by the EFCC.
According the members, there was no scam
whatsoever relating to the payment of the sum of N3.4 billion to the
consultant as it represented only 10 per cent of his professional fee,
which was successfully reviewed downwards from the initial 20 per cent
which the consultant requested for.
“Members of the commission remain proud of all the unprecedented
accomplishments recorded in the NBC during their tenure, which have now
propelled both NBC and the Nigerian broadcasting sector to national and
international limelight,’’ the board members added.
“Most importantly, our clients are
extremely proud and were privileged to have been in the saddle of the
NBC when very difficult but time tested decisions and judgment calls had
to be made for the future of Nigeria as a whole; the growth and
viability of our broadcasting sector and the overall development of ICT.
“To that extent, our clients consider as
one of the key highlights of their tenure, the review and approval of
the innovative and novel proposal by Technology Advisors, the Technology
Law Consultants to NBC, which eventually resulted in raising the sum of
N34 billion, now being utilised by the federal government for the
Digital Switch Over (DSO) project.
“Consequently, our clients resent and
reject entirely, the impression created by the EFCC and fed to the media
these past months that the special auction process or the licensing
that resulted from it, are somehow the result of criminal conspiracy and
so must be fraudulent.’’
The lawyer said that if this project is
viewed with the best of intentions, the first thing the EFCC or anyone
for that matter, would come to appreciate is the ingenuity that went
into crafting the innovative processes and procedures, while strenuous
adherence to all applicable laws, rules, regulations and official
government circulars and directives.
According to the suspects, “This project was the first of its kind in
Nigeria, and indeed Africa. The Commonwealth Telecommunications
Organisation (CTO) cited it as a very creative DSO funding model for
which other African countries should adopt; and Mr. Emeka Mba, the
former DG of NBC, was granted African Broadcasting Regulator of the Year
Award on account of this project.
“It is a highly commendable and life changing project for which every
Nigerian should applaud; and our clients can absolutely assure the EFCC
that no crime was committed in this process.
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