Modibbo Kawu: President Buhari Suspends NBC DG

President Muhammadu Buhari has suspended the director-general of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), Modibbo Kawu.

Kawu’s suspension follows his investigation on allegations of corruption by the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) over alleged N2.5 billion fraud.

According to reports, Armstrong Idachaba, Director, Broadcast Monitoring of the NBC has been directed to take over from the suspended DG.

Last year, a civil rights organisation under the aegis of Coalition Against Corruption and Bad Governance, said it made a fresh discovery of 16 illegal slots of radio licenses approved by the NBC DG.

However, the anti-graft agency urged the federal government to suspend Modibbo Kawu and 32 other public officers/civil servants undergoing corruption trial at the time.

ICPC is prosecuting Kawu for “using (his) position to confer corruption advantage.” The Commission on May 2, 2019 arraigned Kawu and two others, Dipo Onifade and Lucky Omoluwa, over alleged N2.5 billion fraud.

They are being prosecuted on 12-count charges for allegedly conspiring with one another to use the position of Kawu to confer a corrupt advantage on Omoluwa, his friend and associate. The trio pleaded not guilty and were granted bail.

The anti-graft also agency charged Kawu for allegedly deceiving Mohammed to sign the deal.

The embattled NBC boss allegedly asked Mohammed to approve payment of N2.5 billion to Pinnacle Communications Ltd owned by Omoluwa as “Seed Grant” under the Digital Switch-Over Programme of the federal government.

The suspended DG has however denied the allegations.