The House of Representatives caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday, called for the arrest and prosecution of officials of the National Communications Commission, NCC for lying to reps under oath.
NCC had claimed that electronic transmission of results by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was not possible in the country due to lack of network connections and coverage.
Ubale Maska, executive director of the commission represented by the Executive Vice Chairman, Prof. Umaru Garba Danbatta, told the House during the debate for the adoption of electronic transmission of results from the units, that the 2018 Technical Report of the NCC showed that only about “50 percent of the polling units had 3G while 49 percent had 2G network and below.”
However, Kingsley Chinda, member representing Obio-Akpor constituency and leader of the House in a statement said the NCC officials lied to Nigerians while on oath and as such, must be prosecuted for allegedly misleading Nigerians.
According to Chinda, the NCC officials cleverly sought to rely on 2018 data in 2021, when they knew or ought to know that internet penetration has advanced substantially in Nigeria since 2018.
He said: “Indeed a perusal of NCC Website even today shows that the Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2020-2025 (P .33) says that by September 2019, the ‘Spread of 3G/LTE’ had reached 74.2 percent in Nigeria,” the PDP caucus added.
“We call on the prosecuting authorities to immediately arrest the officials of the NCC, under Prof. Danbatta and all those who procured Ubale Maska and other officials to lie under oath to be investigated and where found culpable, be brought to justice by standing criminal trial.”
