Three national dailies in Nigeria have denied collecting any money from the Publisher of ThisDay newspaper and Chairman of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria, Nduka Obaigbena.
Obaigbena was accused by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission of collecting N670 million from a former National Security Adviser, retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki.
Dasuki was said to have given the N670 million to Obaigbena from the $2.1 billion arms deal that was allegedly not executed by the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
But Obaigbena, in disputing the claim, said the N670 million he received from Dasuki was for compensation for the bombing of the ThisDay office in Abuja and disruption of the circulation of newspapers by armed soldiers.
While he said N550 million was given to him for the ThisDay office rehabilitation, Obaigbena said he was to distribute the remaining N120 million at N10 million each to 12 media houses whose distribution were disrupted by soldiers.
However, no sooner had Obaigbena released his statement on the issue to the EFCC than three of the newspapers denied ever receiving such money from him.
Those who debunked the claim in separate statements were Tribune, New Telegraph and Peoples Daily.
Daily Trust, which admitted it collected the money, said it received N9 million.
In a statement by its Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Edward Dickson, African Newspapers of Nigeria Plc, publishers of the Tribune titles, said although it filed claims like all other newspaper companies as requested for by NPAN, that was the last it heard of the issue.
Dickson said in the two-paragraph statement: “Our attention has been drawn to claims by the Publisher of Thisday newspapers, who is also the President of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, that a sum of N10 million was paid to our company through NPAN by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) as compensation for the disruption of our circulation operations, seizure of our newspapers and damage to our property by soldiers in June 2014.
“Although, like other NPAN members, we filed claims as requested for by NPAN, the fact of the matter is that up till this moment, 11th December, 2015, our company is yet to receive a kobo as compensation through NPAN for the 2014 disruptive activities of the military to our operations.”
In a detailed statement on Friday, the management of New Telegraph denied receiving any such money from Obaigbena.
The statement, signed by the Managing Director/ Editor-in-Chief, Funke Egbemode, said despite repeated demands for the money from NPAN, Obaigbena never released the money to the company.
The statement said: “Our attention has been drawn to the inclusion of New Telegraph Newspapers on the list of media houses that THISDAY Publisher and President, Newspapers Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN) claimed he paid N10 million each to, from funds he received from the immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA), Col Sambo Dasuki (retd), as compensation for the illegal seizure of some newspapers by the military during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
“It is on record that following the decision of NPAN to seek compensation from the Federal Government in the aftermath of the seizure of editions of newspapers by the military, New Telegraph computed its losses, which were passed to the association. However, since then, the company has heard nothing from the association on the matter.
“Following a report that NPAN has begun paying N9 million (not N10 million as contained in the report that has gone viral on the internet), the management of Daily Telegraph Publishing Company Limited, publishers of New Telegraph, Saturday Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, has written three letters to NPAN for its share of the compensation; but regrettably, as at this moment, not even a kobo has been received.
“The first letter was written on May 22, 2015 followed by another on July 16, 2015 with a reminder written on November 19, 2015.
“Therefore, it is nothing but sheer falsehood for the NPAN president, who claimed he received the money on behalf of the association, to have included New Telegraph Newspapers as one of the beneficiaries of the funds, which as it has now emerged, was disbursed by the former NSA.”
The Peoples Daily also denied receiving any such money.
It said in a statement on Friday: “One of the revelations on the current inquisition of the tenure of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.) is that this newspaper is among several other national dailies that received the sum of N10m from the office of the former NSA through Nduka Obaigbena, the President of Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria.
“We don’t know of others, therefore, we can’t speak for them. This is news to us. At no time was such money made available to us in whatever guise. We wish to state clearly that it is false and therefore, wish to completely distant this medium from this revelation.”
For Daily Trust and Sun newspapers that said they were paid the compensation, the newspapers admitted receiving N9 million instead of the N10 million Obaigbena said he collected on behalf of each newspaper.
The Editor-in-Chief of Daily Trust, Mannir Dan Ali, said: “It was at the time military personnel were interrupting the distribution of our newspapers. We considered the option of going to court to seek for damages but there was a meeting of Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria. We were told (at the meeting) that government was desirous of compensating those who lost whatever it was that they lost in terms of not being able to distribute their newspapers for the number of days that that operation happened; and that all members of NPAN who were affected, should submit their claims.
“Media Trust submitted its own claims. At the end of the day, ten million Naira (N10m) was to be given to us out of which, the consensus made at the NPAN level was that NPAN had issues with its Secretariat and out of that N10m, N1m was ceded to NPAN. As a company, we were given nine million naira (N9m) as compensation for the losses we suffered over that period.”
The Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of Sun newspapers, Eric Osagie, said the N9 million was for compensation for losses incurred when the military disrupted the distribution of newspapers.
Osagie said though not enough to cover the loss recorded during the period, it was far better than engaging in a face-off with the government and unending litigation.
He said the company, run by professionals, never received any slouch fund.
However, Leadership newspapers said it got its N10 million in full.
The Deputy Managing Director of Leadership Newspaper, Mike Okpere, said: “We did a computation of our loss and it was substantially more than that N10m and we gave it to NPAN and NPAN I heard handed it over to the NSA and what it resulted in was that each newspaper House was given N10m each as compensation. NPAN was to go to court. This was out of court settlement. That is what happened.”
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