JACITAD condoles Focus TV over fire incident

A non-governmental organisation, the Joint Action Committee for ICT Development and Awareness (JACITAD) has condoled the management and staff of Focus Television over the recent fire incident that razed down their office facilities located at Lateef Jakande Road, Ikeja.

The Executive members of the association led by its president, Mr. Prince Osuagwu, also visited the site of the fire disaster and after seeing the rubles that was left of the former studio, urged the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector to come to the rescue of Focus Television.

“It is so sad that this is happening at the beginning of this year 2011 which experts have predicted to be an activity year for the ICT sector. This scene is shocking and there is no gainsaying the fact that the entire Nigerian ICT industry has been hit badly by this disaster. I am saying this because Focus TV has been a frontline electronic media which passion for the development of ICT in Nigeria is never hidden.”

He also consoled the chief executive officer of the private TV station, Mr. Tayo Adewusi, praying that God would restore into many folds, all that the company had lost to the fire disaster.

Mr. Osuagwu called on all well-meaning Nigerians especially players in Nigeria’s ICT industry to respond to the situation so that the TV station which has carved a niche in setting agenda for ICT practice in Nigeria could be brought back to its feet.

He further presented a cheque for the donation of N100,000 from JACITAD to Mr. Adewusi, saying that the donation was to reassure the management and staff of Focus TV that the industry which they have helped to nurture would not turn its back on them at this trying time.

Immediately after the JACITAD president’s speech, the Executive Director of another Nigerian company, also championing the development of ICT in Nigeria, Digital Sense Africa (DSA), Mrs. Nkemdilim Nweke, said that the gesture by JACITAD was worth emulating and therefore announced a handsome donation to ensure that Focus TV comes back quick to business as usual.

Mrs. Nweke decried the inability of fire service personnel at Alausa to contain the fire, describing it as a sad situation.

She also prayed that God released the grace for Mr. Adewusi and his management team to bear the loss. Fellow industry player, Mr. Bayero Agabi of AITInfotech, who also visited the scene of disaster lamented that the incident was just too big for one man only at the beginning of the year.

He noted that what has gone with the fire cannot be quantified in monetary terms, adding that since the studio came on live in 2008, a lot of additional investments have been made in terms of equipment and documentation of programmes.

Earlier when Mr. Adewusi was giving account of the fire incident, he said: “I am yet to believe that these rubbles are the remains of my live studio I left in good shape the night before. I wish I would just wake up tomorrow and all these are just dreams.

“Can you imagine that not even a pin was recovered from this studio? Where will I begin my life from? Which of the equipments am I going to get and which one is good to be left out? Life sometimes can be wicked. I left here a night before the incident with high hopes of what we were going to do the next day but was only called around 7.00 am the next morning that my studio was on fire. In less than ten minutes I was here and the damage was done before I could save anything.

“Our suspicion is power surge from a reported crazy supply by PHCN that morning “ he added. Focus TV was commissioned in 2008 by the former Minister of State for Communications, Alhaji Dasuki Ibrahim Nakande. The studio is a digital entertainment cable television station with bias for information technology, business and gospel.

It is a cable channel on the Disc Communications platform, offering a bouquet of digital cable channels that could be received with an installed Yagi antenna on UHF 45.7 MHz on the DISC terrestrial transmission space.

Since its launch, it has become a powerful tool in the hands of creative men and women, entertainers, politicians and the state as a medium for broadcasting items of news, music, talk, sports, entertainments and movies.

Focus TV derives its offering from the ICT Watch; a weekly industry feature on Minaj Broadcast International (MBI), MITV and TVC which has been sustained for over seven years and continues to provide issue-based reports and analyses as well as the coverage of industry innovation and product launch.


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