Nduka Obaigbena, editor-in-chief and chairman of
Thisday, has opened up on money he received from the
national security adviser Sambo Dasuki.
Operatives of the anti-graft commission are investigating
how $2.1bn money meant for the purchase of arms
disappeared from the office of the ex-NSA.
The detectives detected another line of payment made to
companies linked to Thisday publisher and owner of Arise
Television, Nduka Obaigbena.
Obaigbena was paid at least N650million from a doubtful
transaction with Dasuki.
Thisday Publisher
However, he said that the N550 million expenditures he
got from Dasuki, were reward for the Boko Haram attack
on the Abuja office of the paper on April 26, 2012.
Obaigbena added that the extra N130 million was
compensation for 12 newspapers whose circulation was
stopped in 2014 by troops who said they were acting on
intelligence that Boko Haram desired to transport
explosives under the guise of media cars.
The newspapers’ boss wrote a letter dated from
December 9, 2015 to the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC), in which he pledged to honour the
commission’s invitation after returning from the United
States of America.
He said he never got any “suspicious” money from the
NSA.
Read the letter in full below:
Please refer to your letter of invitation dated 8th November
2015, which was received in our Abuja Office on the 8th of
December 2015.
I am currently in the United States of America on my way
back to Nigeria to honour your invitation, but I feel it
necessary to make the following statements prior to my
arrival in Nigeria:
1. We have never received any suspicious funds from the
Office of the National Security Adviser. ALL funds received
from the Office of the National Security Adviser were
PAYMENTS for COMPENSATION to MITIGATE the following:
1.1. N150,000,000 + N150,000,000 and N250,000,000
respectively received in August, November and February
2014 as compensation to mitigate the dastardly Boko Haram
twin bombings of the THISDAY NEWSPAPERS offices in
Abuja and Kaduna on Thursday April 26, 2012, during which
4 innocent Nigerian lives were lost, our buildings destroyed
and we lost full colour Goss printing towers and three (3)
pre-press Computer-To-Plate and anxiliary equipments and
other (in)valuable property valued at over N2.5 BILLION.
This is aside from daily costs to pay 3rd party printers of
over N1 Billion having lost our printing facility to terrorist
due to inadequate protection by the Federal Government of
Nigeria. The bombing of THISDAY offices followed the Abuja
United Nations Building bombing for which the Federal
Government has so far spent N3 Billion for reconstruction
and much more earmarked for furnishing;
1.2. N100,000,000 and N20,000,000 received in March
2015 for The Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria
(NPAN) and 12 newspapers who demanded compensation
for the brutal and unlawful seizure of newspapers and
stoppage of circulation by armed soldiers in Abuja and
several cities.
As President of the NPAN, it was my duty to
lead media leaders to hold discussions with President
Goodluck Jonathan to avert a class action lawsuit against
the Armed Forces and the Federal Government of Nigeria.
2. On both occasions, President Jonathan 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 approvals
for the reconstruction of the Abuja United Nations Building,
since we were the second major organisation to be attacked
by Boko Haram after the UN attack.
He therefore directed
me to meet the National Security Adviser who processed the
3 payments in question. Please find attached a copy of our
letter to President Jonathan as well as correspondence with
the then NSA on the Newspapers’ payment. I will be making
my way to Nigeria to meet with you should you require
further information.
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