Buhari sacks Idachaba, appoints Balarabe Ilelah as NBC director-general

Buhari has sacked Armstrong Idachaba and appointed Balarabe Ilelah to replace him as director-general of NBC.

HILLARY ESSIEN • June 11, 2021

Armstrong Idachaba, President Muhammadu Buhari, and Minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed

President Muhammadu Buhari has sacked Armstrong Idachaba and appointed Balarabe Ilelah to replace him as director-general of the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC).

Mr Idachaba, a Christian from the North-Central Kogi, was appointed in February 2020 to head the NBC.

A statement from the office of information minister Lai Mohammed described Mr Ilelah as a veteran broadcaster and that his appointment would be for five years.

The statement was signed by Mr Mohammed’s media aide, Segun Adeyemi.

Mr Buhari gave Mr Idachaba the boot despite the latter’s efforts to pander to his regime’s tastes.

Recently, NBC issued public and private broadcast stations operating in the country to immediately delete their Twitter accounts, citing an earlier ban on the social media platform.

It came a day after Peoples Gazette reported that some broadcast stations have stopped distributing their contents to social media amidst fears of a government crackdown.

Last January, under Mr Idachaba, the warned media houses in the country to cautiously report the issue of insecurity, particularly around the herdsmen crisis in Ondo and Oyo.

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