NGE made this known as one of its resolutions at the just
concluded 4th quarterly Standing Committee meeting held in Abuja on
Saturday over the alleged N120m given to the President of the Newspapers
Proprietors Association of Nigeria, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena by the embattled former
National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd).
The Guild emphatically stated, “The guild notes the efforts
of the Federal Government to recover stolen public funds and commends the
courage behind it, while urging the government to respect the fundamental human
rights of the suspects in the process”. Continuing,” The guild asks the
government to thoroughly investigate every corruption case and pursue same
diligently and to a logical conclusion. It advises judges to be circumspect in
granting injunctions and be more painstaking in the adjudication of corruption
cases”. It finally added, “the guild calls for a thorough investigation into
the circumstances leading to the involvement of some media executives in the payments
from the office of the former NSA in the interest of fairness and justice”.
The NPAN President who has been invited by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC has for receiving N670m from Dasuki has alleged through an open letter that N550m
was given tom him as compensation for the losses that his newspaper, Thisday,
sustained during the Boko Haram attacks in Abuja on April 6,2012. Explaining
further, Obaigbena stated that out ofn the said amount, a sum of N120m was
given to him to distribute among some members of NPAN whose newspapers were
seized by soldiers and intelligence operatives in 2014.
However, the management of Guardian Newspapers countered the
allegation stating that it was not a party to the demand for any form of
compensations from the Federal Government, hence neither participated nor
benefited. Insistently, Obaigbena maintained his position that the Guardian was
a party to the decision taken by the NPAN.
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