The Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) yesterday admitted that some of its members, Nigerian Tribune, Peoples Daily and New Telegraph were yet to receive compensation money paid to the body by the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, but gave reasons why the money was yet to be paid to them.
According to Leadership, this followed
statements by the three newspaper organisations distancing themselves from the said money.
The NPAN President, Nduka Obaigbena, had in his response to a letter of invitation from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), detailing how he received and disbursed N120 million in March 2015 on behalf of NPAN, listed the said newspapers as some of the 12 who benefitted from the compensation money.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the Executive Secretary of NPAN, Feyi Smith, explained that while some of affected papers had not come to pick their cheques, there was a case of omission in the case of one of them, which it was agreed, would be tabled for resolution at the next executive council meeting of the association.
“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 (NPAN) Executive Council meeting of March 17, 2015, held at the offices of Daily Trust, Abuja, resolved to accept the N120million compensation and passed two other resolutions thereto: (1) that each member- organisation accepts to donate N1million from the compensation to the Association for the up-keep of the Secretariat; (2) that members should bring their membership account current, by paying all past dues to the Secretariat before collecting their cheques,” the statement read.
NPAN explained that while 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 and that Blueprint Newspapers which was inadvertently omitted from the list had since 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 former 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,” it added.