December 01, (THEWILL) – Bright Echefu, the controversial businessman who sold TSTV with enticing offers to Nigerians using former Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has abandoned the project and latched on to another project, this time, with the help of the Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Muftwang.
Echefu’s latest project, a pay TV called LUFT TV, is what has now taken the place of TSTV which took off on shaky grounds.
Echefu launched Telecom Satellite Television Limited, TSTV in 2017. At the time it was launched, it was touted to be the first and only fully indigenous pay TV operator in the country. The launch was accompanied with enticing offers that raised the hopes of many Nigerians who desperately needed a break from DSTV and GoTV.
TSTV, among other things, promised to offer pay-per-view, affordable subscription rates with daily subscription available as well as a 20 gigabyte free data all for a N5,000 decoder and maximum monthly subscription of N3,000. And so, his decision to launch it on October 1, 2017, without mincing words, was supposed to be symbolic of a declaration of ‘freedom’ for fans of pay TV. In fact, on the day of the launch, Alhaji Mohammed said that TSTV would be tax free for the next three years as a way of encouraging the company.
But it turned out to be a farce as all the mouthwatering promises faded soon after the launch with subscribers experiencing epileptic services and at some point, the company stopped transmitting all together.
Echefu staged another comeback three years later with the promise to offer Nigerians the best Pay-TV experience. However, it was yet another failed promise, as its service remained intermittent, leaving subscribers who had invested in the company’s decoders with constant complaints.
TSTV completely went off the radar again in March 2023 and it has remained absent till date with no particular explanation to subscribers beyond intermittent apologies for ‘technical glitches’ during its active days. Now he has launched LUFT TV with the same promises he made when he launched TSTV. He claims that TSTV isn’t dead as widely speculated and that subscribers who never enjoyed the perks of TSTV since its launch, would be moved to the LUFT TV platform. The launch, ironically, is coinciding with a fraud case he is embroiled in.
Earlier in the week, a Magistrate Court sitting in Bwari Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory ordered his arrest over allegations bordering on $651,280 fraud.
Echefu who is also the Chief Executive of a security company, Briech Intelligence Fusion Limited, was said to have defrauded BCG NEEDS Company of the said amount under the pretence of supplying drones and accessories. Irked that he was not in court to stand trial for the fraud charges against him, the court ordered the FCT Commissioner of Police to arrest him and his accomplices and bring them before the court on or before the next adjourned date to enable them to stand trial. He had earlier been arraigned before the Federal High Court in Abuja by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC over allegations of tax evasion, money laundering and advanced fee fraud. How he hopes to redeem his image and fulfill all of the incredible promises he made to TSTV subscribers remains a mystery, but THEWILL is closely watching.
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
