A clerical naming error has cost Nigeria’s broadcast regulator yet another court defeat in Abuja in its battle to defend the power to fine broadcast stations.
The Court of Appeal struck out the challenge filed by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) after Justice Jane Esienanwan Inyang found that the notice of appeal identified the commission as the “Nigerian Broadcasting Commission,” not the “National Broadcasting Commission” on record at the trial court.
The error proved fatal. As Justice Inyang explained, the notice of appeal is “the foundation of an appeal,” and the discrepancy stripped the appellate court of jurisdiction before it could consider the commission’s arguments.
The appeal had contested a January 17, 2024 ruling by Federal High Court Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia in Abuja, which barred the NBC from enforcing N5 million fines it had imposed on four broadcast stations in 2022. Those sanctions targeted Multichoice Nigeria Limited (owner of DStv), TelCom Satellite Limited (TSTV), Trust TV Network Limited and NTA StarTimes Limited for airing documentaries on banditry and insecurity that the commission alleged posed a national security threat.
Media Rights Agenda (MRA), a Nigerian media freedom organisation, brought the original legal challenge against the fines.
The ruling extends a pattern of judicial defeats for the commission spanning more than three years and reaching both federal trial and appellate levels. In April 2026, the Court of Appeal dismissed a separate NBC appeal against another judgment barring it from fining broadcasters. In May 2023, the Federal High Court in Abuja found the commission lacked judicial authority to impose financial penalties on media organisations.
The history of NBC sanctions stretches further back. In March 2019, the commission fined 45 stations N500,000 each for alleged violations of the Nigerian Broadcasting Code during the general elections. Then Director General Ishaq Kawu cited ethical breaches as justification.
Courts have since drawn a consistent line against those powers. After losses at two court levels and on multiple fronts, the commission may find that legislative reform is a more viable path than continued courtroom battles it has repeatedly lost.
