Chairman and Publisher of Thisday Newspapers, Chief Nduka Obaigbena, has responded to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) which invited him to account for the N670 million traced to him as part of the $2.1 billion arms budget for which the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki, is standing trial.
In response to a letter of invitation from the EFCC, Obaigbena made it clear that the amount he received from the Office of National Security Adviser, ONSA was duly approved for him by former President Goodluck Jonathan to compensate him for the dastardly bombing of his offices in Abuja and Kaduna by Boko Haram insurgents.
The publisher said the approval by Jonathan for the payment of the sum of N550 million to him was in response to the letters of appeal he personally wrote to him pleading for assistance following the destruction of his buildings and printing facilities by the insurgents.
Obaigbena said such compassionate approval by the former president and subsequent payment by the ONSA could not amount to receiving suspicious funds from the office of the NSA.
The Chief Executive Officer of Thisday said: “We have never received any suspicious funds from the Office of the National Security Adviser. All funds received from the Office of the National Security Adviser were payments for compensation to mitigate the dastardly Boko Haram Haram twin bombings of the Thisday Newspapers offices in Abuja and Kaduna on Thursday April 26, 2012, during which four innocent Nigerian lives were lost.
“During that attack, our buildings were destroyed and we lost full colour Goss printing towers and three pre-press Computer-To-Plate and anxiliary equipment and other invaluable property valued at over N2.5 billion. “This was aside the daily costs to pay third party printers of over N1 billion having lost our printing facility to terrorists due to inadequate protection by the Federal Government of Nigeria.
That amount of money was drawn down from the ONSA in March 2015 following the appeal made to Jonathan by the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), where he serves as the President. “As President of the NPAN, it was my duty to lead media leaders to hold discussions with President Goodluck Jonathan to avert a class action lawsuit against the Armed Forces and the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“On both occasions, President Jonathan said he did not wish to lay precedence and in our case, he specifically said there were many victims of Boko Haram. I had to confront President Jonathan on the issue when I learnt of approvals for the reconstruction of the Abuja United Nations Building, since we were the second major organisation to be attacked by Boko Haram after the UN attack.
“Jonathan therefore directed me to meet the National Security Adviser who processed the three payments in question.” He attached the exchange of correspondences between him and former President Jonathan and his approvals to the NSA for payment and said he was ready to meet the EFCC for clarification once he returned to Nigeria. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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Nduka, where is your education? When did the office of the NSA become ministry of finance or the Central Bank. It is very clear that the money you received was approved for arms purchase and was appropriately released to the right source until the misappropriation. You really have no excuse.stop blabbing!
ReplyDeleteBut is Nduka saying there was not insurance on these buildings? With all his education and international repute, he couldn't insure his business? Then he collected all this insane amount of money and yet he could do enough business to pay his staff salaries for almost a year. Na wa o.
ReplyDeleteOya come back from US come explain ya sef o Oga Nduka
Efcc should investigate this guy to confirm if he makes claims from insurance companies after the bombing of his office.You are not allowed to get compensation from insurance and now try to cover up obvious money laundering schemes
ReplyDeleteVery amazed by the level of financial recklessness in Jonathan administration.
ReplyDeleteHow could such amount be paid you from the office of ordinary adviser. Very painful. I pray the law catches up on all u looters.
ONSA Bank... Ok who else collected loan from Bank CEO Dasuki
ReplyDeleteThank God Nigerians who thought that no regime can rival IBB's regime in the act of corruption now know better. That Abacha was simply an armed robber while GEJ has now confirmed to the world that IBB is indeed a saint. CBN knows about this rot but the current Governor was imposed to cover up all these atrocities. But this tells a lot about publishers who opened offices for money laundering. If you were that much in 2015 which equipment did you acquire with the fund in 2015? What happened to insurance? Is your office that of only Nigerian affected by the boko Haram bombing?
ReplyDeleteThese people are disgrace to black race.
ReplyDeleteMost of these so called literate, learned and widely travelled big men for nothing are just fraudsters. Imagine the trash from this nonentity mouth! Meaning your business was not insured? Don't worry, you will surely confess when you get back to the country, Sheriff Sai PMB is calmly waiting...Bam Bam
ReplyDeleteGod bless PMB and all good Nigerians. Let's all gang up to expose and defeat all the antisocial elements
ReplyDelete