The Media Trust Group (MTG) has begun an intense search for a radio tower meant for its newly established radio station in Abuja.
The tower was decommissioned in a village in Niger State, but it disappeared with suspected connivance of some officials of a government security organisation.
The MTG, a Nigerian media conglomerate, which owns Daily Trust, Trust Television, Aminiya, and Teen Trust, recently established Trust Radio, which has started streaming online.
The station is set to go on the terrestrial platform on 92.7FM band for listeners in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as well as some parts of Kaduna, Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger states.
But the formal takeoff of Trust Radio on the terrestrial platform has stalled due to the delayed delivery of a radio tower that has been acquired on its behalf by a company called Dynamic Kautal Hore Engineering Company Limited.
The Chief Executive Officer of the contracted company, Bello Magaji, had since July this year notified the MTG of the acquisition of the radio tower on its behalf in Maikujeri Village in Kagara local government area of Niger State.
According to a reliable source, based on this, the Media Trust, entered into a formal contractual agreement with Dynamic Kautal Hore.
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The source said MTG advanced to the contractor the sum of N6.25 million out of the total cost of N12.5 million for the acquisition, decommissioning, transportation and installation of the tower in its premises in Abuja.
But more than two months after the formal signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the two companies, and weeks after the expiration of the dateline for delivering on the deal, the tower has yet to be delivered to MTG.
The source said on the 30th of October this year, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Trust Radio, Muhammad Kabir Muhammad notified the management of MTG of a credible information he got that the decommissioned radio tower had been “snatched away” from the contractor by persons suspected to be officials of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
When contacted, Magaji, confirmed that some persons had swooped on the equipment and loaded its decommissioned parts into a vehicle and moved same to Minna, the Niger State capital.
He said that he had traveled from Maikujeri Village to Kagara town to raise some funds and arrange a vehicle to convey the tower to Abuja, only for him to be told upon his return to the village that some persons in NSCDC uniform had moved the tower to Minna.
The contractor explained further that he immediately returned to Kagara where he reported the matter to the police, after which he proceeded to Minna to engage with the Niger State Commandant of the NSCDC, Mr. Elijah Etim Willie.
He said he also laid a complaint to the Niger State NSCDC commandant, who informed him that the Command will investigate the incident.
However, more than two weeks after the report by Magaji to Mr. Willie, the whereabouts of the tower has remained elusive.
But by earlier last week, the identities of the NSCDC officials who allegedly “snatched” the tower became known.
They were said to be attached to its Kaduna State Command.
Some residents of Maikujeri, who were eyewitnesses, informed the COO of Trust Radio that they had tried to stop some of the suspects from taking the tower away, and insisted on extracting a written undertaking before allowing the suspects to move the equipment out of the village.
Meanwhile, some credible sources also informed the COO of Trust Radio that the missing tower had allegedly been sold to a Lagos based businessman who deals in scrap metals.
Series of efforts to get the National Headquarters of the NSCDC to intervene in the matter have failed.
The Ag. Group Chief Executive Officer of the Media Trust Group, Ahmed Shekarau told our reporter that the management of the company wrote an official letter to the Commandant General of the Corps, Mr. Abubakar Ahmed Audi, seeking audience with him on the matter, but up to press time, he has not agreed to meet with them.
He said: “On November 13, when our management realised that this matter appeared to be complicated, and its handling by the Niger State Command of the NSCDC seemed clumsy, I wrote on behalf of the Chairman of our Board of Directors, Malam Kabiru Yusuf, seeking audience with the Commandant General of the service.
“I equally approached the National PRO of the Civil Defence, Mr. Babawale Afolabi, seeking his intervention to facilitate the meeting, “he said.
The MTG Ag. GCEO added: “When by Friday, November 17th, the PRO did not facilitate our meeting with the CG, our Board Chairman led the COO of Trust Radio and myself to the NSCDC headquarters where we requested to see the CG or any other senior official of the organization, in order to formally table our complain on this matter.
“That effort was yet again unsuccessful, as we were only led to the PRO (Mr. Afolabi), who said none of the top officials was available as at that time, but he made a call to someone he said is the ‘ACG in charge of Critical National Assets and Infrastructure’, and the person advised that we give them more time to investigate the matter”.
Asked what will be the next line of action by the MTG, Shekarau said: “We want to make efforts to see the Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Olatunji Ojo, and lay our complain to him, because we have lost confidence in the neutrality of officers and men of the service, including its highest command”.
Earlier on, our reporters in Abuja and Minna had contacted the National PRO, as well as his counterpart in the Niger State Command, for their reactions on this matter. Both simply pleaded that the Corps be “allowed time to investigate the matter”.