$2.1bn arms deal: We didn't know compensations were from arms fund - Nduka Obaigbena

Chairman of ThisDay newspapers and president
of Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria
(NPAN) Nduka Obaigbena has written to EFCC on
allegations he received part of the controversial
arms deal money. In a letter yesterday, Obaigbena
said his company and NPAN didn’t know that the
N670million compensation they got from the
office of the National Security Adviser were from
arms purchase fund. Obaigbena disclosed this in
his reaction to EFCC on the payments his
company and the 12 other newspapers received
from the NSA in 2015. In a letter sent to EFCC,
Obaigbena said;
"When the ONSA (Office of the National
Security Adviser) said that they had
approval to pay us, but would rather not
set a precedent by paying THISDAY directly,
we nominated a member company of the
THISDAY Newspapers Group, called General
Hydrocarbons Ltd., to receive the payments
on behalf of the group of companies, given
that the assets of General Hydrocarbons
Ltd – mainly generators – were also
destroyed in the bombings;
“We did ask our insurance consortium to
pay compensation but they said we were
not covered for war and or terrorism risk.
Until that time, we never knew we needed
war or terrorism insurance in Nigeria as the
government had not officially declared war.
With the power of hindsight, we now know
better.
“We simply used the compensation funds to
defray some 30 per cent of the N1.7 billion
we already paid to 3rd party printers for
services in lieu of the Abuja press, while we
went to our banks for refinancing printing
presses, computer-to-plate and other
facilities.”
"We never participated in any arms
purchase in any shape or form and only
demanded compensation for a horrendous
terrorist act against us. In the same way,
the United Nations and others who may
have received some compensation could
not have known the line budget items for
the funds being used for the reconstruction
of the UN Abuja buildings. Even the
Nigerian Guild of Editors, which may have
received donations for their secretariat from
the ONSA, could not have known which
subhead it was paid from. We simply
cannot know or be expected to speculate
which line item the spending was made
from by the ONSA. There is simply no
nexus between payments made for
compensation, to us victims of terrorism as
well as to newspapers in compensation for
an unprovoked attack on free speech, and
any arms purchase budget'
We do not deserve further trauma because
some official(s), outside of our control, may
or may not have followed due process. All
victims of terrorist attack deserve a fair and
just compensation. The fact that we have
received some remedy should be reason to
accelerate compensation for all victims of
Boko Haram attacks across Nigeria
however big or small,” he said.