National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) has advised the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to discontinue forthwith the jamboree prosecution and persecution of Mr Lucky Omoluwa, chairman of Pinnacle Communications; Dr Moddibbo Kawu, director general, National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and others.
NYCN said it was concerned about the way and manner the ICPC has unilaterally turned itself into a cog in the wheel of progress towards a regime of digital broadcasting in Nigeria.
Rising from its recent emergency meeting today in Abuja, NYCN said was rather curious that at a time the government of the day, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari is working assiduously and investing huge sums of money to make the Nigerian economy sufficiently diversified to engage our teeming unemployed youth in productive endeavors.
According to the group, the digital Switch Over (DSO) is one such programme that the government made a priority from very early in its first tenure, due to the capacity of the broadcasting industry to provide employment for our populace over the long-term.
In a statement by Amb Akoshile Muktar and Comr Adedamola Olugbode, national publicity secretary and vice president respectively, the group said “It is rather curious that an agency of government would be working at cross purposes to the stated objective of the government, against the greater good of the Nigerian people”
“We wish to put on record the unflinching support of the NYCN for the programmes of the federal government anchored on the war against corruption, with a view to building a more resilient economy that will have the capacity to keep our youth busy and away from crime and violence that has become the order of the day in our country today. Curiously the matter under discussion, being the ongoing prosecution of the Director General of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the Chairman of Pinnacle Communications Limited, over an alleged diversion of funds.” They added.
They also said that “It is worrying that organization of the ICPC’s stature would reduce itself to posturing as though it were carrying out a hatchet job for vested interests, through the visible gaps in the arguments it has made to the public on the subject matter.
“That the ICPC chose to go to the media to conduct a showy trial even before approaching a competent court is the first case in point that buttresses our position.
“That the ICPC would announce to the nation that the Minister of Information, who had given approval for the money to be disbursed to Pinnacle Communications, would be serving as prosecution witness because he signed the approval in error would be laughable if scarce government resources weren’t being expended on this exercise, not to talk of the cost to the nation in investments from the DSO being stalled”