The Minister of Communication and Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has said he never ordered the National Broadcasting Corporation to take the Big Brother Naija Reality TV Show off the air.
Speculations fueled by major Newspaper reports insinuated that Lai Mohammed ordered the NBC to stop the broadcast of the popular reality TV show because of the fear of Housemates contracting COVID-19.
In a statement issued, through his media aide, Segun Adeyemi, the Minister described the reports as false. He said such important decision would have been communicated through writing rather than verbally.
“The report was not credited to the minister. That statement is not credited to the minister. We will not dignify speculative reports; if a minister issues a directive, it will not be issued verbally.
“There’s going to be a memo to that effect that he will send; anybody that is sure that the minister made that statement should provide a memo.
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“Like I said earlier, we will not dignify speculative report; if you tune your satellite TV to channel 198, I am sure Big Brother Naija is still airing, contrary to the speculative report that the minister has ordered NBC to suspend the show.”
Lai Mohammed reiterated in the statement.
The organisers of Big Brother Naija had ensured that the selected housemates were placed in a two week quarantine before the start of the show on July 19, 2020.