The Federal Government said on Tuesday that it had succeeded in jamming
the transmission signals of Radio Biafra, which had been operating
illegally from an unknown location.
Dr Yemi Folasade-Esan, the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of
Information, stated this while speaking with State House correspondents
after he had briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on the activities of the
ministry.
Folasade-Esan said that Buhari was adequately briefed on the activities of
the illegal radio station and the successful blocking of its transmission
signals.
“We also gave a report on (Radio Biafra) that because right now the
signals from Radio Biafra have been jammed. The National Broadcasting
Commission (NBC) has successfully jammed that.
“The NBC is also working with security operatives to get those that are
behind that radio because it is an illegal radio.
“It is not licensed by anybody to be on Nigeria’s airwaves.“
The permanent secretary disclosed that she also briefed the President on
the activities of the nine parastatals and agencies under the ministry as
well as the Federal Information Centres in the states of the federation.
According to her, the president raised concern about piracy and instructed
the ministry to work harder to reduce piracy to ensure that the producers
of intellectual property such as Nigerian movies, get what is due to them.
Folasade-Esan identified inadequate funding as one of the major challenges
the ministry and its agencies were experiencing.
She and said that the ministry was considering resuscitating its federal
information services in each state of the federation considering their
importance to the success of its mandate.
“Most of the challenges have to do with adequate funding. We talked
especially about National Press Centre that is not working up to the level
it should work.
“We also talked about the Federal Information Centres. You will recall
that we have Federal Information Centres in every state of the federation.
“They are not working optimally as well and we brought that to the fore
because that is actually one of the strengths of the Federal Ministry of
Information.
“We also talked a lot about the external publicity and the possibility of
reopening the Federal Information Services abroad.“
(NAN)