N120m compensation: NPAN, Tribune, Telegraph in counterclaims

The controversy stirred by the secret payment made to the President of the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, by a former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), has refused to die down.

On Saturday, even as NPAN sought to strengthen its initial claims with additional explanations, some of the parties alleged to have received the funds insisted they did not.

The Executive Secretary, NPAN, Mr. Feyi Smith, in a statement issued on Saturday, sought to clarify the statement issued by Obaigbena on Friday.

Obaigbena’s statement appeared to have stated that the Nigerian Tribune, The Telegraph and the Peoples Daily were among the newspapers that benefitted from the secret N120m compensation money paid to publishing companies whose newspapers were seized by soldiers and intelligence operatives in 2014.

The three newspapers had denied this claim.

But Smith insisted that N10m cheques were issued to each of Tribune and People’s Daily. He added that the cheques were at the NPAN secretariat waiting to be picked. He also claimed that “a process had been ongoing to also pay Telegraph.”

However, when contacted on Saturday, the managements of Tribune and Telegraph insisted for the second day that they had not been informed of the development.

The Economic and Finacial Crimes Commission, as part of its investigation into series of alleged dubious payments made to politicians, government officials and businessmen by a former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), had invited Obaigbena, who is also the Publisher of ThisDay whom Dasuki gave N670m.

Obaigbena, in a letter to the EFCC, in which he promised to honour the invitation when he returns from the United States of America, admitted collecting the money.

However, the NPAN president said N550m of the amount was compensation for the losses that his newspaper sustained during Boko Haram attacks on its Abuja and Kaduna offices on April 26, 2012. He said he also collected an additional N120m as compensation for 12 newspaper houses over military attacks on their circulation.

Smith’s statement, which clarified aspects of Obaigbena’s explanations, reiterated that the secret payment was compensation for the “disruption of circulation of newspapers”.

The statement read, “Our attention has been drawn to statements issued last night by the Nigerian Tribune, Peoples Daily and New Telegraph Newspapers claiming that they did not receive the compensation for the military disruption of circulation of newspapers by the Federal Government.

“It should be recalled that the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria’s executive council meeting of March 17, 2015, held at the offices of Daily Trust, Abuja, resolved to accept the N120m compensation and passed two other resolutions thereto.”

The resolutions, according to NPAN, are that each member-organisation accepts to donate N1m from the compensation to the association for the up keep of the secretariat and that members should make their membership account current by paying all past dues to the secretariat before collecting their cheques.

The statement added, “The cheques for the Nigerian Tribune and Peoples’ Daily remain in the Secretariat awaiting collection.

“In the case of New Telegraph, the secretariat was confronted with a situation where 13 newspapers made claims while compensation for 12 newspapers was made. Blueprint Newspapers, which was inadvertently omitted from the list, has since been been paid.

“When New Telegraph now demanded payment that had been collected by Blueprint Newspapers, the secretariat then brought the matter to the attention of the of the President, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, who then called Governor Orji Kalu, the Publisher of both The Sun Newspapers (who had been paid) and the New Telegraph (which has not been paid), to urge him to be patient for the matter to be tabled at the next executive council meeting, where he would seek the approval of the exco to take the funds earmarked for the Secretariat to pay them.”

However, Tribune, on Saturday, restated its earlier position that the newspaper did not receive the money.

The Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of the Tribune titles, Mr. Edward Dickson told TONYGIST that the NPAN secretariat did not inform the organisation of any waiting cheque.

He said, “Our statement was very clear. If NPAN is now saying that our cheque is laying in their office, then, that confirms to you that we were not given anything. We were not contacted. We got no contacts from NPAN that our cheque was laying at their office. We didn’t get any communication from them.”

Also on Saturday, Telegraph stated that it was not aware that it had been agreed that NPAN would “sort out” its share of the compensation.

The Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of Telegraph, Mrs. Funke Egbemode, also told our correspondent that despite a letter and a reminder to NPAN on its claim, the secretariat did not deem it fit to explain why its name got missing on the list.

She said while she could not confirm if Obaigbena had called Kalu as Smith claimed, the organisation still stood by its initial claims.

Egbemode said, “I resumed in June as the Editor-in-Chief and MD, I am not aware of any meeting. All I know is that since I resumed, we have written – just as it is stated in the statement we sent out – that the New Telegraph is expecting money.

“We have also sent a reminder and there was no time that they gave us any response at all. We didn’t get any response; not since I’ve been the MD. Maybe they contacted somebody else; maybe my predecessor or anybody else in the system.

“We will wait for whatever is coming. We have not received any money. Also, note that The Telegraph was originally on the list. How we failed to make the list when it was time to write the cheque, we are still wondering.”

When asked if she was aware that Blueprint Newspaper, which was said to have been omitted on the initial list was later included, and used to replace Telegraph, Egbemode said, “No, we were not informed.”

Efforts to get Kalu to confirm Smith’s claim of Obaigbena telephone conversation with him (Kalu) were not successful. Several calls made to his telephone line were not picked; he also did not reply a text message sent to him.