The Court of Appeal in Abuja has struck out another attempt by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) to overturn a Federal High Court judgment barring it from imposing fines on radio and television stations.
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In a unanimous ruling delivered on Wednesday, the appellate court dismissed the NBC’s appeal, declaring its notice of appeal “fundamentally defective” and legally incompetent.
Delivering the lead judgment, Justice Jane Inyang identified a critical discrepancy in the identity of the parties involved. While the case at the Federal High Court was between the Incorporated Trustees of Media Rights Agenda and the National Broadcasting Commission, the notice of appeal listed the appellant as the “Nigerian Broadcasting Commission” — a different legal entity.
Justice Inyang held that the inconsistency constituted a fundamental defect that deprived the court of jurisdiction to hear the appeal.
“The notice of appeal and the accompanying briefs are fundamentally defective and do not and cannot confer jurisdiction on this court to hear and determine the appeal,” she ruled.
The court stressed that a valid notice of appeal is the foundation of any appeal and a prerequisite for the exercise of appellate jurisdiction. Consequently, it held that there was “no appeal in fact and in law” before it and struck out the case for incompetence.
The appeal stemmed from a January 17, 2024 judgment by Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, who ruled that the NBC acted unlawfully and unconstitutionally when it imposed N5 million fines on MultiChoice Nigeria Limited (DStv), TelCom Satellite Limited (TStv), Trust TV Network Limited and NTA StarTimes Limited in August 2022.
The sanctions were imposed after the broadcasters aired documentaries highlighting banditry and insecurity in Zamfara State, which the NBC claimed undermined national security.
Justice Ofili-Ajumogobia held that the fines violated the constitutional right to freedom of expression, including the right of citizens to receive information without interference, as guaranteed under Section 39 of the Constitution and Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The latest ruling marks another setback for the NBC in its legal battle over its sanctioning powers.
In April 2026, the Court of Appeal dismissed a separate NBC appeal challenging a May 10, 2023 judgment by Justice James Omotosho, who ruled that fines are criminal sanctions that can only be imposed by courts of law, not administrative agencies. The court had also rejected the NBC’s bid to set aside that judgment in November 2023.
The decision further strengthens judicial restrictions on the commission’s authority to impose monetary sanctions on broadcast organisations without court intervention.
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