The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed an appeal filed by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) challenging a Federal High Court judgment that restrained the commission from imposing fines on broadcast stations.
NBC
Delivering judgment, Justice Jane Esienanwan Inyang held that the appeal was fundamentally defective and therefore incompetent.
The appeal stemmed from a Jan. 17, 2024 judgment delivered by Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which barred the NBC from enforcing N5 million fines imposed on several broadcast stations in 2022.
The sanctions had been issued over allegations that the stations aired documentaries on banditry and insecurity considered by the commission to be capable of undermining national security.
The affected broadcasters included Multichoice Nigeria Limited, owners of DStv, TelCom Satellite Limited, Trust TV Network Limited and NTA StarTimes Limited.
The suit was instituted by Media Rights Agenda (MRA), which challenged the legality of the fines imposed by the commission.
In her ruling, Justice Inyang pointed to a discrepancy in the appeal documents, noting that the respondent before the Federal High Court was listed as the “National Broadcasting Commission,” while the notice of appeal identified the appellant as the “Nigerian Broadcasting Commission.”
According to the court, the inconsistency was substantial enough to deprive it of the jurisdiction required to entertain the appeal.
“The notice of appeal is the foundation of an appeal and a condition precedent to the exercise of appellate jurisdiction by this court,” the judge held.
Consequently, the appeal was struck out without consideration of the substantive issues raised by the commission.
The ruling represents another setback for the NBC in its efforts to defend its authority to sanction broadcast organisations through administrative fines.
In April 2026, the Court of Appeal similarly dismissed a separate appeal by the commission against another judgment that restricted its powers to impose fines on broadcasters.
Earlier, in May 2023, the Federal High Court in Abuja ruled that the NBC lacked the judicial authority to impose penalties on media organisations without recourse to the courts.
The controversy over the commission’s sanctioning powers dates back to March 2019 when the NBC imposed N500,000 fines on 45 broadcast stations for alleged violations of the Nigerian Broadcasting Code during the general elections.
At the time, the then Director-General of the commission, Is’haq Kawu, said the sanctions were imposed for ethical breaches and violations of broadcasting regulations.
Legal analysts say the latest judgment reinforces previous court decisions limiting the commission’s authority to impose fines on broadcasters without judicial intervention.
