Nigeria’s much-hyped satellite TV station, NN24, has folded up barely two years after it was launched with much fanfare.

The company’s head office at Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, has been locked while Diamond Bank, to which the company is heavily indebted, is said to be looking for the promoter, Chief Tony Dara, whose whereabouts remain unknown.

Transport & Business Express reports that NN24 (full name Networknews24) was promoted as Africa’s answer to CNN (Cable news Network) when it was launched in May 2010 but that the lofty dream was soon cut short by mismanagement.

NN24 debuted as a 24-hour station on DSTv as Nigeria’s first 24-hour news channel but cut down transmission to 13 hours in just about a year of operation. By then staff were owed eight months salary and some of the best hands left for greener pastures.

“It was a real nightmare working for NN24. I left my previous place of work to join it after being made an irresistible offer but I never got a kobo for the ten months I was there before we shut down,” one of the former staffers lamented to Transport & Business Express.

Chief Dara, who founded NN24 in 2008 served as its CEO, previously worked with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) before relocating to England, where he worked for ITV Central and Bloomberg TV, among others.

Photo: NN24 Founder & CEO, Chief Tony Dara