Vice Presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria, Ahmed Datti made a controversial comment during an interview on Channels TV, where he said that swearing in the “purported” winner of the election Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the All-Progressives Congress (APC), would mark the end of democracy in Nigeria. Channels television was reported to the Nigeria Broadcasting Commission (NBC) which led to penalty of payment of fine on the station. How the audience perceived this action from the NBC remains to be studied. This research investigated audience perceptions of Tinubu’s petition letter on this issue. Survey research method was used to study 384 respondents in Awka metropolis. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the respondents studied. This study was anchored on the agenda setting theory. The objectives of this study are to determine the frequency of exposure to Tinubu’s petition letter to NBC against Datti by respondents in Awka, to determine the source of exposure to the letter by respondents in Awka, to determine their perception of the petition letter, and to determine their perception of the NBC for sanctioning Channels TV due to the petition. The results showed that respondents were highly exposed to the letter, and their main source of exposure was social media. The study also found that respondents had a negative perception of the letter as an instrument against freedom of speech, and their perception of the NBC was that it was a biased regulatory body. The study recommended, among others, that the NBC should be open-minded and independent in order to be critically objective in the reaction of petitions from the ruling party so it will not seem as if the commission is biased.