Managing Director of Vintage Press Limited, publishers of The Nation and Sporting Life newspapers, Mr. Victor Ifijeh, yesterday explained that the company had wanted to sue the Goodluck Jonathan government for the sum of N300 million after security agencies seized and bundled copies of its newspapers, but only got “a paltry N9 million” as compensation.
The publisher of Thisday newspapers and president of the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Nduka Obaigbena, who is being accused of receiving illicit funds from the past government, named The Nation as one of twelve newspapers which received cash from the office of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki.
Ifijeh stated that the Nation had written to NPAN and notified it of the company’s decision to demand the sum of N300 million from the Federal Government as compensation or resort to legal action.
The letter dated July 16, 2014 and signed by the company’s Managing Editor (Online/Special Duties), Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin, stated that Vintage Press Limited had suffered “monumental losses” from the clampdown on The Nation and Sporting Life..
“The days in question were Friday June6, Saturday June 7 and Sunday June 8, 2014,” the letter stated.
“On these days, soldiers who said they were acting under instructions ‘from above’ willfully and maliciously impounded the circulation vans of Vintage Press Limited carrying bundles and copies of The Nation and Sporting Life for distribution and sales across the country.
“The vans were impounded on the highways of Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti, Edo, Delta, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Kaduna, Plateau, Benue, Imo, Abia, Enugu states and the FCT, Abuja.
