The Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria has in a communiqué issued at the end of its Executive Council meeting in Lagos on Thursday, December 17, given reasons why the association collected N120m from the office of the embattled former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.).



According to the communique,some members of the association suffered huge losses in sales, advertising revenue and business goodwill by the military seizure of newspapers between Friday, June 6 and Sunday, June 8, 2014 in Abuja , Oyo, Ondo, Edo, Ekiti, Delta, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Kaduna, Plateau, Benue, Imo, and Enugu states.





The communique stated that: “Amidst this tension, and perhaps to stem the spate of multiple litigation against the security agencies and the Federal Government, the then President Goodluck Jonathan, decided to hold a meeting with the executives of NPAN on June 12, 2014, at the State House, Marina, Lagos.



“At this meeting, the President apologised for the infraction of press freedom and the disruption of the business rhythm of our members. This was well received by our members. In recognition of the President’s gesture, one of our executive officers, Lady Maiden Ibru, spoke in favour of the association dropping the demand for compensation. But because some members wanted to seek redress in court, it was decided to pursue a civil resolution of the matter.



“All active member newspapers submitted their claims, with some as low as a few hundred thousand naira and others running into hundreds of millions. With no easy way to verify these widely divergent claims, the association leadership accepted the offer from the government, of a flat rate of N10m to each of the 12 media houses affected. The total amount came to N120m. Most of our members duly collected the compensation in good faith. Meanwhile, the cheques for The Guardian, Tribune and Peoples Daily, are still with our secretariat.”


http://dawntodusknews.com/why-we-collected-n120million-from-dasuki-newspaper-owners/

https://www.thenews.ng/top-stories/see-why-npan-collected-n120m-bribe-from-dasuki/

Nigeria sucks!!!!

Dear Messrs Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria, whatever is bad, is bad, there are no two ways about it!

Pls don't attempt to sweet coat bad manners, admit it that U did something wrong and return the money.

Receiving stolen property/money is also a crime.
Ignorance is no defence.
He who comes to equity must come with clean hands.

So under hero Jonathan, newspapers were actually seized from the stands by the military? I thought he was humble and democratic

Awon oniyeye

No story, just bring back our money.

This guys should be left out of this mess. If this case was address in court, the federal government would have paid more for the damages.

Kudos to The Guardian, Tribune and People's Daily Newspapers for abandoning their cheques. Now we know those not driven by pettiness. Ibru raised the motion for compensation but abandoned the "bribe-like" resolve of a fixed lump sum to everyone. She obviously expected a valuation of her coy's damages in accordance with her motion, and not a bursary-like disbursement. Albeit, did the media outlet carry this as news at the time?

Sun Newspapers claimed they received N9m. Same amount has supposedly been returned. Who received the balance 10% of N1m? Bribe to NPAN or the FG/Dasuki Courier?

Merry Xmas Naija!

So their much celebrated Hero of Democracy was a closet Dictator that stifled freedom of the press and freedom of speech, yet those idiots tried so hard to shove the "return of Decree 4" twaddle down our throats in the first week after Baba took over when one of his overzealous aides simply forbade the useless station AIT from covering his activities.

Over 90% of those who received gifts of Santa Dasuki have owned up yet the Wailers and Ekpas insist they are "propaganda".

The questions these thieves would have to answer in court are:

1. How many papers were damaged??

2. Who carried out the evaluation of the cost of the damages?

3. How is it the responsibility of the NSA to cater to such needs when there's the office of the media advisor and minister of information and communication??

Anyway the spin this, what happened was nothing short of bribery for favourable press coverage for the admin.

If I were them, I would've towed the path of honour just like The Sun and return the damn bribe.

Awon Ole.