Policemen and operatives of the
Department of State Services (DSS) are currently laying siege to the head
office of DAAR Communications in Asokoro, Abuja.
Tony Akiotu, group managing
director of DAAR Communications, disclosed this in a message sent to TheCable
on Saturday morning.
Akiotu said heavily armed
security operatives gathered around the station premises at 12:30am on
Saturday.
The development comes less than
12 hours after AIT and Raypower FM went back on air following a court order.
The National Broadcasting
Commission (NBC) had shut the stations on Thursday over what it described as
breach of its rules.
But on Friday, Inyang Ekwo, judge
of a federal high court in Abuja, ordered reopening of the stations.
He also summoned NBC and the
ministry of information and explain why the motion challenging the commission
should not be granted.
DAAR Communications had filed an
ex parte motion before the NBC suspended its operations.
Akiotu said the stations resumed
operations in line with the directive of the court.
“As at 12.30am this morning, the
premises of DAAR Communications Plc is surrounded by security operatives of the
Nigeria Police Force and the DSS,” he said in a message sent to TheCable.
“The motive for the siege is not
clear at the moment. They are heavily fortified and carrying out surveillance
on the premises. The motive for the unusual surveillance is not clear. DAAR
COMMUNICATIONS PLC returned to the airwaves following an exparte motion granted
by the Federal high court in Abuja.
“The station is still
transmitting signals on its National and global beam. The management of DAAR
Communications Plc wishes to alert Nigerians to this unwarranted threat to its
operations by operatives of the State Security services.”
DSS operatives had first stormed
the head office of DAAR Communications on Thursday night to effect the
shutdown.
When TheCable visited the DAAR
Communications premises on Friday morning, some workers said the security
operatives blocked access to most of the offices on Thursday.
“They came in the night and some
of the workers who were on night duty could not work. It was during that period
that the transmission was shut down”, an AIT broadcaster, who preferred
anonymity, told TheCable.
Another member of the staff told
TheCable that most of her colleagues were left with no choice than to stay back
at home because of the shutdown.
“This is against press freedom
and can happen only in Nigeria. We all must condemn it,” she had said.
Before the clampdown, Raymond
Dokpesi, founder of DAAR Communications and a chieftain of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), had raised the alarm that there were plans to shut the
stations.
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