Modibbo Kawu, the director-general of the National Broadcasting Commission, NBC, has been suspended on the directive of President Muhammadu Buhari.
This development comes months after the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, arraigned the NBC DG on corruption charges.
Sources at NBC confirmed the news to journalists on Friday, February 14, 2020, revealing that the most senior director in the commission has been directed to take over from the suspended DG.
“As you are aware, he is being prosecuted by the ICPC for alleged corruption,” one of the sources said.
The ICPC had arraigned Kawu in May 2019 over his alleged complicity in the misapplication of the N2.5 billion seed grant for Digital Switch-Over, DSO, program of the Federal Government.
Kawu, alongside the chairman of Pinnacle Communications Limited, Lucky Omoluwa and the chief operating officer of the same company, Dipo Onifade, were docked before Justice Folashade Ogunbanjo-Giwa of the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The anti-corruption agency, filed 12 charges against them, bordering on abuse of office, money laundering and misleading a public officer with the intent to defraud the federal government, in contravention of Section 26 (1) (c) of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 and punishable under Section 19 of the same law.
President Buhari had appointed Kawu, a journalist with decades of experience as the NBC DG on May 25, 2016.
