The Oodua Youth Coalition (OYC) has threatened to picket the office of pay TV company, Multichoice Nigeria on Victoria Island in Lagos.

The group described the move as its response to the agitations of the Nigerian public regarding the recent increment of tariffs on DStv and GOtv, paid direct broadcast satellite service and terrestrial service respectively.

A letter addressed to the Chief Executive Officer of Multichoice Nigeria on Wednesday, titled, ‘Notice of Picketing’ and signed by the President of the group, Oluyi Akintade Tayo, said the company had refused to toe the path of peace, hence the planned action.

The letter obtained by Flavision reads,

I, on behalf of OYC, write to inform you that your organization’s refusal to back down on the proposed increment and implementation of same on your GOTV and DSTV tariffs had inflicted and still inflicting financial, physical, emotional and mental burden on Nigerians. This is the second increase in subscription rates under two years from your organization. It, unfortunately, took effect on the 1st of April, 2022.

We have it on good authority that on the 31st of March, 2022, a Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal sitting in Abuja had restrained you and your organization from jerking up your DSTV and GOTV tariffs, products and services as scheduled for the next day.

Also, the Nigerian Senate, the highest, constitutionally recognized lawmaking body in Nigeria, after setting up an ad-hoc committee to address these arbitrary hikes in your rates, had directed that you and your organization put a hold on your proposed tariff increase and immediately effect a downward review on your prices as they are not in tandem with economic realities in Nigeria today.

While we continue to agitate for pay-per-view plans for Nigerians, taking into consideration other service providers like telecoms and electricity distribution companies which charge consumers based on unit use and not monthly use as yours, we have concluded on the next and necessary step.

We will be picketing Multichoice Nigeria Victoria Island office, Lagos on the 27th of April 2022. This is in response to the agitations of the Nigerian public and your refusal to toe the path of peace, empathy and honour.

The company had announced new rates for its offerings in Nigeria, saying from April 1, subscribers would pay more for all its bouquets and its premium package on DSTV would cost N21,000, no longer N18,400.

It had announced that its Compact Plus which cost N12,400 would now for N14,250, while Compact would cost N9,000 instead of N7,900.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.