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Bayelsa Politics Forces Radio Nigeria To Shut Down Over Rent

SaharaReporters has learned that the FM station of Radio Nigeria in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State, shut down operations over the last three weeks due to its inability to afford accommodation.

Radio Nigeria Creek 106.5FM, located along Opolo-Elebele Road, started its broadcast in 2014. After only two years, the station has gone off the air to the surprise of listeners and fans who used to tune in to follow the network’s different programs, particularly the 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. network news.

A senior staff of the station told SaharaReporters that the station was on a two-year lease, adding that the Bayelsa State government had paid the rent. The source revealed that the former Director-General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Ladan Salihu, had in 2014 pressured Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State to provide logistical support, especially accommodation, for the station’s takeoff and apparently to win the heart of then President Goodluck Jonathan who hails from Bayelsa State.

Two years later, with the defeat of Mr. Jonathan in last year’s presidential election, the state government became unwilling to renew the rent, even thought it reportedly promised to provide a temporary accommodation for the station until the management develops the plot of land allocated to FRCN in Yenagoa.

SaharaReporters also learned that Mr. Dickson was reluctant to renew the rent at the station’s present address for political reasons. During last year’s governorship election, the owner of the property, Victor Akenge, defected from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC). Mr. Akenge was a former commissioner in Bayelsa State.

A source at Government House said, “How do you expect the governor to empower a political enemy? It won’t work and politics does not favor such a transaction.’’ 

Our correspondent reported that numerous listeners and fans of Radio Nigeria in Bayelsa State had been visiting the broadcasting house since October 31, 2016 when the landlord locked up the premises. When our correspondent visited the station on November 15, he found the gate still locked. A few members of staff were seen around the premises. One of them told our correspondent that the landlord had locked up broadcast equipment worth millions of naira.

A member of staff stated that it was not even right for the state governor to provide the accommodation in the first place, adding that the transaction created image problems for the station. “How do we guide against compromise and maintain independence in the spirit of balanced reportage if the state government is paying rent for a federal agency?”

She said more than 60 employees of the station now risked been transferred to other stations across the country to avoid redundancy.

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