The President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari has barred the African Independent Television ( AIT) from covering his engagement until issues of ethics and standards are sorted out.
It was learnt that Buhari gave the directives through his security team, which asked the AIT crew to leave the Defence House during the visit of the Cuban Ambassador to him.
Although the station was informed politely by one of the officials, the crew refused to leave the venue.
Reacting to the incident, the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation Spokesperson, Mallam Garba Shehu disclosed to the media that what gave rise to the measure was concerns over security and ethical standards which members of the family of the Presidnt- elect raised.
He said: “AIT has been asked to stay aside based on security and family concerns. In addition, Gen Buhari has decided that they will have to resolve some issues relating to standard and ethics.
“We will be talking with them to try and resolve the matter but for now the station has been asked to stay aside because like I said there are some family and security concerns. They have been asked to step down their coverage until we resolve the matter with them on ethics and standards”.
However, Shehu said it is not true that the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) has been bared along with the AIT,
According to him, the NTA crew are free to attend the events of the President-elect and to cover them accordingly.
When asked whether he should be quoted, Shehu said: “Yes you can quote me that I said that we have asked them to step aside and that we are resolving the the issues of ethics and standards with them”.
It would be recalled that Buhari and APC had raised the issue of hate campaign against the AIT during the presidential election campaign.