A Federal High Court in Abuja rejected the application filed by MultiChoice Nigeria Ltd on Friday.
The application sought an interim order to prevent the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) from demanding any financial, accounting, or tax documents from the company.
Justice James Omotosho, in a ruling on the ex-parte motion presented by the applicant’s lawyer, Moyosore Onigbanjo, SAN, instructed all parties not to take any action that could undermine the outcome of the case. He then scheduled the matter for a hearing of the motion on notice on May 30.
“The ex-parte order for Interim Injunction dated 8th day of May 2024 and filed 16th day of May 2024 is hereby refused,” he declared.
In the ex-parte motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/652/2024 dated May 8 and filed May 16 by their lawyer, they sued NBC as sole respondent.
The 1st and 2nd applicant are MultiChoice Nigeria Limited and Details Nigeria Limited, a provider of the subscription based digital terrestrial television service, known as GOtv respectively.
The applicants sought three reliefs, including an order of interim injunction, restraining NBC from carrying out any investigations of the companies for the purposes of determining their annual income or NBC levy for the years between 2014 and 2024 pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.
They sought an order of interim injunction restraining the NBC from requesting, demanding and or receiving any financial, accounting or tax documents from the companies other than the annual audited accounts of the companies already submitted to the commission.
In the affidavit deposed to by the companies’ Head of Compliance, Gozie Onumonu, he averred that the firms were mandated under the various NBC Codes to pay a certain percentage of their income as annual NBC levy to the respondent.
“Income as provided by the NBC Code 6th Edition is not defined neither is it defined in any other previous editions nor in the NBC Act 2004.
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