A former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, on Friday described the closure of AIT and Raypower FM by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) as a throwback to the era of Decree 4 during the military era.
The former Vice President warned that the suspension of the licenses of the DAAR Group and shutting down of its stations reveals a dangerous dark anti-media agenda by the Buhari administration to stifle critical voices in the country.
Reacting to the suspension of AIT licence and the closure of the radio and television station by NBC, the PDP presidential candidate in the 2019 presidential election explained that the hostility of the federal government to free press cannot be hidden, despite its pretended commitment to democratic values.
According to Atiku, any situation where the media cannot freely criticize the government poses a grave danger to our democracy.
Atiku also explained that you cannot have a vibrant democratic order where the press is under totalitarian threats from a supposed democratic government.
He added that if the press is not free, the situation will inevitably lead to dictatorship and endanger our struggles to entrench democracy in Nigeria.
The Waziri Adamawa said it is impossible to love democratic values and hate free press at the same time.
Atiku warned that the war against the media is the first stage to turn our democracy into a
