The management of The Sun Publishing Ltd, publishers of The Sun newspapers has dismissed insinuations linking it with alleged sharing of slush fund from the Office of the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki.
The newspaper in a statement signed by its Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, Mr Eric Osagie yesterday, said it has never been and will never be involved in any illegal sharing of the nation’s commonwealth.
The statement said the clarification has become necessary to silence mischief makers who are already spreading falsehood on an imaginary huge sum paid to The Sun as part of its share of an alleged $2.1 billion slush fund from the Office of the NSA.
“We can boldly say it that we did not share any slush fund with anybody and got none from any quarter. Ours is an organization run by professionals who place high premium on individual and corporate integrity and as such will not compromise great values imbibed over the years”, Mr Osagie stressed.
He noted that the only payment that has come from the Presidency to the company in recent years was about Nine Million Naira (N9m), paid by the Federal Government to about 12 national newspapers to prevent a class action lawsuit which was to be filed by the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and the affected newspapers to demand compensation for the brutal and unlawful seizure of newspapers and stoppage of circulation by armed soldiers in Abuja and several cities across the country around June 2014.
“It is on record that the action of the military which led to huge losses to the affected newspapers was roundly and globally condemned then. We had to accept the Federal Government’s offer along with others in place of years of litigation in the interest of peace and national security even though the amount was a far cry from the huge loss of revenue incurred by The Sun at the time”, the statement added.
