Thisday publisher Nduka Obaigbena returns £1.2m to EFCC under plea-bargain deal

THISDAY publisher Prince Nduka Obaigbena has returned the sum of N350m (£1.2m) to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as part of a plea-bargaining arrangement he entered into regarding his role in the Dasukigate arms scandal.

 

Last week, Prince Obaigbena was arrested by security agents after it emerged he was a beneficiary of the $2.1bn Dasukigate arms scandal. Following his interrogation, it appears that the publisher was paid the N670m (£2.33m) for unexecuted contracts from the Office of the National Security Adviser (Onsa).

 

Prince Obaigbena was released, however, after signing an undertaking to return within two weeks the money he collected from former national security adviser Col Sambo Dasuki. According to s senior EFCC operative, Prince Obaigbena returned the money to the commission on Tuesday and is expected to pay an outstanding N200m next week.

 

 “The publisher of ThisDay Newspaper, Mr Nduka Obaigbena, has returned N350m out of the N670m he received from the Office of the National Security Adviser (Onsa) and he is expected to return the rest N200m next week. You know that he signed an undertaking to return the money before they released him and that undertaking expires on Tuesday next week," the EFCC source added.

 

Admitting to having received N670m from the Onsa, Prince Obaigbena explained that N120m of the money was given to the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria as compensation for losses incurred during the military clampdown on media houses in 2015. He added that damages were also paid to his newspaper house by the Goodluck administration as compensation for the bombing of ThisDay's offices by Boko Haram.

 

Several other media houses, which received the compensation, have returned the money. Records from the Corporate Affairs Commission indicated that Prince Obaigbena is a director of General Hydrocarbons, a company that received cash from Col Dasuki.