Daily Independent, Peoples Daily newspaper, New Telgraph deny receiving N10m compensation from Obaigbena

The managements of Peoples Media Limited, publishers of Peoples Daily; Daily Telegraph Publishing Company Limited, publishers of New Telegraph, Saturday Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, and Independent Newspapers Limited, publishers of Daily Independent newspapers, have all come out to publicly deny Nduka Obaigbena's claims that he gave them N10 million each from embattled former National Security Adviser NSA Sambo Dasuki as compensation for the military confiscation of their dailies in June last year.
TThe Chief Operating Officer of the Peoples Daily newspaper, Ali Ali, in a statement released yesterday refuted claims of receiving any money for compensation from the last government.“One of the revelations on the current inquisition of the tenure of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) is that this newspaper, among several other national dailies, received the sum of N10million from the office of the former NSA through Nduka Obaigbena, the President of Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria, NPAN.

 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 distance this medium from this revelation. We don’t know of others, therefore, we can’t speak for them,”. 

Also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-Chief of New Telegraph, Funke Egbemode, in a statement denied claims of receiving any money from Obaigbena. The statement reads

“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.”

Chief Executive Officer of Independent Newspapers Limited, publishers of Daily Independent newspapers, Ted Iwere has also denied the claims of receiving any N10 million as compensation from Obaigbena