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The National Broadcasting Commission has approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja, seeking leave to file a fresh appeal against a Federal High Court judgment that barred it from imposing fines on broadcast stations.
The application follows the Court of Appeal’s June 17, 2026, decision striking out the commission’s earlier appeal because it was “fundamentally defective” and incompetent.
In a motion filed by its counsel, Mr Dapo Akinosun (SAN), the NBC asked the appellate court to extend the time within which it can challenge the January 10, 2024, judgment delivered by Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court.
The case arose from a suit instituted by Media Rights Agenda challenging the commission’s decision to impose fines of N5m each on Multichoice Nigeria Limited, owners of DSTV, TelCom Satellite Limited, Trust-TV Network Limited and NTA Startimes Limited.
In a statement issued on Monday and signed by the communications officer of Media Rights Agenda, Idowu Adewale, he said that the sanctions were imposed after the broadcasters aired documentaries on banditry and insecurity in Zamfara State, which the NBC alleged undermined Nigeria’s national security.
In her judgment, Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia held that the commission acted unlawfully and unconstitutionally in imposing the fines, ruling that the NBC lacked the authority to sanction broadcasters because it is not a court of law.
The commission’s initial appeal was, however, struck out by the Court of Appeal after the appellant was described in the court documents as the “Nigerian Broadcasting Commission” instead of its statutory name, the “National Broadcasting Commission.”
In its fresh application, the NBC argued that the judgment raised issues of exceptional public importance concerning its statutory powers to regulate broadcasting and enforce compliance with broadcasting standards in Nigeria.
The commission warned that allowing the judgment to stand without appellate review could create uncertainty regarding its regulatory powers and weaken the framework governing the country’s broadcasting industry.
According to the NBC, “the subsisting judgment is capable of creating significant uncertainty regarding the commission’s regulatory powers and its ability to effectively discharge its statutory mandate.”
It further argued that a weakened regulatory framework could encourage non-compliance with broadcasting standards and lead to the spread of false, misleading and unverified information capable of causing public anxiety, panic and social unrest.
The commission also claimed that the absence of effective oversight could embolden irresponsible broadcasting practices and facilitate the misuse of broadcast and digital media platforms to disseminate sensational or inflammatory content.
The NBC maintained that its proposed appeal raised substantial issues affecting not only the parties in the suit but also the integrity and orderly regulation of Nigeria’s broadcasting ecosystem, with implications for broadcasters, content creators and media consumers.
The commission told the court that it had instructed its lawyers to appeal Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia’s judgment immediately after it was delivered and that the appeal was filed on March 18, 2024, within the period prescribed by law.
It attributed the failure of the earlier appeal to what it described as an inadvertent error by its lawyer in misdescribing the commission’s statutory name in the notice of appeal.
The NBC is also seeking leave to raise a fresh issue on appeal concerning the legal capacity of Media Rights Agenda to institute and maintain the suit before the Federal High Court.
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the application.
