DAAR communication, owners of African Independent Televison (AIT)
have refuted claims by presidential spokesperson, Shehu Garba, that they
denied President Buhari and the APC access to use their media platform
during the campaign periods.
It can be recalled that the presidential spokeman at a media summit
in Lagos last week, alleged that media stations, AIT and NTA,
maltreated President Buhari and the APC during the campaign periods.
(Missed it? Click here).
In a statement released on Wednesday, October 21, the TV station
said as a responsible media organization, it made its media platform
open for all political actors irrespective of their political parties.
The statement asked the presidential spokesperson to name AIT staffs
that refused them to pay for their political ad campaigns.
The statement reads in part;
"On the allegation of maltreatment through the rejection and
denial of political campaign space on our station, we wish to state
categorically and emphatically that at no time did we reject or deny the
presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) broadcast
space on our station – AIT.
We subscribe to the laws of the land as enshrined in the 1999
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, and other
Acts of the National Assembly.
We are guided by the tenets of media practice which are
professionalism, fairness, objectivity and balance irrespective of
political affiliation. At the beginning of the electioneering process
meant to herald the 2015 elections and as has been our practice since
1999 we opened our stations to all the contesting political parties and
their respective candidates on all our broadcast platforms; RayPower FM,
Faaji FM and AIT.
In accordance with the ethics of our business; media bookings,
the terms of the contract, the discount offered amongst others are
usually contractual obligations which are sacrosanct and exclusive only
to the parties involved but if and when the need arises, we are willing
and ready to tender all the contract documents to the public for their
information and knowledge.
We feel pained, disappointed and betrayed by the allegation of
maltreatment of the APC’s Presidential Campaigns by Mallam Garba Shehu,
who at various times requested for unusual discounts and concessions, at
short notices, which we often obliged in our spirited efforts of
ensuring that we engaged all political parties, most especially the APC
in our broadcasts so that we would be fair to all parties."