Heads may roll over broadcast of Nigerian anthem on CRTV

By Mbom Sixtus in Yaounde

Amadou Vamoulke: CRTV GM

All chiefs of services at CRTV Garoua regional station have been interrogated following an incursion that witnessed the broadcast of the national anthem of Nigeria over the airwaves of the station, causing panic in the North region. They were interrogated on Monday, September 8, at the regional delegation of the ministry of communication.

Residents of the region were taken aback when the Nigerian national anthem was broadcast over CRTV Garoua that Saturday.

According to French language Emergence newspaper, at about 6, 30 a.m. August 6, while listeners were waiting for the English news cast relayed from CRTV Yaounde, transmission suddenly went off the air. A moment of silence lasted a few seconds and then transmission resumed but with a broadcast of the Nigerian national anthem.

 After the anthem, a Nigerian newscast followed in the English language. A resident of Garoua, one Hamadou, told the newspaper that they thought there was a coup against Cameroon by Nigeria or Boko Haram.

“I called the CRTV radio house in Garoua to find out what was happening and no one answered. So I concluded that things have taken a twist for the worse...that assailants have taken over Cameroon.”

Witnesses said the strange broadcast went on for over 30 minutes and the whole region was in panic mode.

The transmission was later traced to be from Radio Gotel, a Nigerian radio station broadcasting news, relayed from Abuja, with correspondences from different states of the country filing in reports.

CRTV staff interviewed explained that their transmitter powered off and there was no technician and no announcer in the studio at the moment it switched off. They said that the chief of transmission service was equally not on duty at the time of the incident.

The chief of technical services for the station was also not at work. As a result a guard on duty took upon himself to turn the transmission back on.

The guard, Pierre Babagai, once he turned it on, he said, he began to do an automatic dial search to restore broadcast on the airwaves, however, instead of getting CRTV Garoua, , he captured the signal from Nigeria and transmitted Radio Gotel which is not far from Garoua. A staff of CRTV said that the guard did not know how to capture CRTV Garoua.