The management of Pinnacle Communications Limited, a major signal distributor is currently working on the option of dropping its N1.2 trillion suit against the National Broadcasting Commission ( NBC). The company had in 2015 dragged the NBC before a Federal High Court in Abuja over an alleged breach of contractual agreement.
The option being considered by the management of Pinnacle is sequel to the talks held with the representatives of National Broadcasting Cooperation (NBC) and the Ministry of Information and Culture.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed intervened and promised to reverse the breach in the contractual agreement as it affects Pinnacle Communication;
Stakeholders in the industry submitted that if Alhaji Mohammed had been in the saddle of the Ministry from inception, the height of impunity and corruption witnessed at the NBC, would not have reared its head.
Sir Lucky Omoluwa, chairman of Pinnacle Communications, told journalists in Abuja that his foreign partners, Jampro Antennas and Gates Air, manufacturers of broadcast equipment are ready to commence operation.
“We have held meeting with the government lately, we and our foreign partners also met with the minister of information and culture, and we are also talking with the NBC. Our global partners are familiar with the terrain and we have infrastructures in all the states in Nigeria,” said Omoluwa.
According to Mr. Dipo Onifade, the Executive Director of Pinnacle Communications Limited, the company is committed and comfortable with the intervention of Alhaji Lai Muhammed, Minister of Information and Culture and has subsequently mobilised its foreign partners in preparation for the rollout, in his response to questions from journalists regarding the law suit, he submitted that the law suit would be withdrawn as soon as all grey areas are cleared.
Onifade said Pinnacle was ready to play its own part in ensuring that the June 2017 deadline for the migration is realised.
Pinnacle which won a carrier license made available by the federal government alleged that NBC as the regulatory agency of the government, rescinded on the agreement as contained in the federal government white paper on transition from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting.
It also claimed the NBC had represented that there was no other digital terrestrial signal distributors in Nigeria apart from the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and showcased Pinnacle Communications as the second and only other terrestrial signal distributor in Nigeria.
The NBC it alleged contravened this provision as it issued licenses to two other signal distribution companies.
The government conducted the pilot scheme of the switchover last month in Jos, Plateau State, signalling the commencement of a nationwide digitisation process.
