Can you Nigerians hear another animal talk from the
Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Thisday newspaper, Nduka Obaigbena? He has said
the immediate past National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki, paid him N670
million as compensation for attacks on his newspaper’s offices in Abuja and
Kaduna in 2012 and also compensation for the illegal seizure of newspapers by
men of the armed forces !!!
Mr. Obaigbena made the disclosure while responding to
an invitation by the Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC) in connection to
the ongoing probe into the usage of $2.1 billion arms procurement fund by the
office of the NSA under Mr Dasuki , who is currently being
investigated for the alleged diversion of the fund.
Mr Obaigbena is the second owner of a mainstream media
organisation, after the founder of DAAR Communications, owners of Africa
Independent Television and Raypower radio network, Raymond Dokpesi, who have
been mentioned in the investigation.
In a letter, dated December 9, 2015, addressed to the
Chairman of the EFCC, Mr Obaigbena explained that he was in the United States
and would honour the invitation in person as soon as he returned to the
country. He, however, stated that he thought it necessary to issue a statement
prior to his return.
He denied to have ever received any suspicious funds
from the office of the NSA adding that all funds he received were “payment for
compensation to mitigate” terror attacks on the head office of his newspaper in
Abuja and another attack on the newspaper’s office in Kaduna.
“N100,000,000 +N100,000,000 and N250,000,000 respectively
received in August, November and February 2014 as compensation to mitigate the
dastardly Boko Haram twin bombing of the Thisday newspapers offices in Abuja
and Kaduna on Thursday April 26, 2012, during which four innocent Nigerian
lives were lost, our building destroyed and we lost full colour Goss printing
towers and three (3) pre-press Computer-To-Plate and auxiliary equipment and
other (in)valuable property valued at over N2.5 billion having lost our
printing facility to terrorists due to inadequate protection by the Federal
Government of Nigeria,” he wrote.
Mr Obaigbena added that he was compelled to make the
request after the federal government spent N3 billion in reconstructing the
United Nations office that was bombed by Boko Haram in August 2011.
He further wrote that he received additional N120
million in March 2015 on behalf of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of
Nigeria (NPAN) and 12 newspapers who asked to be compensated for the “unlawful
seizure and stoppage of circulation by armed soldiers in Abuja and several
cities.”
Mr. Obaigbena explained that as the Chairman of NPAN,
he did that to forestall a planned class action the newspapers were going to
institute against the government.
He explained that on both occasions, former President
Goodluck Jonathan initially refused to accede to the demands so as not to
create a precedence but later approved the payment after he (Nduka) confronted
him with the effort the government had undertaken to reconstruct the UN
building.
“On both occasions, President Jonathaan said he did
not wish to lay precedence and in our case, he specifically said there were
many victims of Boko Haram, I had to confront President Jonathan on the Issue
when I learnt of the approval for the reconstruction of the Abuja United
Nations Building, since we were the second major organisation that would be
attacked by Boko Haram after the UN attack. He therefore directed me to meet
with the National Security Adviser who processed the three payments in question.”
No comments:
Post a Comment