Court grants AIT/Raypower, NBC leave to settle out of court

Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court Abuja on Thursday granted DAAR Communications and the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) leave to settle their dispute out of court.

DAAR Communications had prayed the court to restrain the NBC from interfering in its operations, pending the determination of the motion on interlocutory injunctions filed in court.

Founder of DAAR Communications, Raynond Dokpesi, filed the motion after the NBC suspended the operating licences of its Africa Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower FM.

The judge granted the leave for the out of court settlement after Maliki Sylvanus, holding the brief of Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), counsel to Dokpesi made an oral application.

The matter was slated for hearing before Sylvanus informed the court that parties in the proceedings were engaged in talks with the aim of amicably settling the matter out of court.

He said in view of this, he is calling on the court to avail them with a date for parties to report settlement to the court.

Defence counsels in the matter did not raise any abjection to the application for settlement.

Justice Ekwo subsequently, adjourned the matter until June 26 for report on settlement.

It would be recalled that on June 6, the NBC suspended the licence of DAAR Communications Plc, owners of African Independent Television (AIT) and Raypower until further notice.

Director-General of the NBC, Modibbo Kawu, announced the shut down while addressing newsmen in Abuja. He said the action was taken for failure of the stations to abide by the broadcasting code.

Following mediations by media stakeholders, a truce was reached by the two parties to settle the matter amicably in the national interest and one of the conditions agreed upon was the withdrawal of all pending cases in court filed by the broadcast media outfit.