Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of THISDAY and Arise TV, Nduka Obaigbena
Eko Hot Blog reports that the Presidential Campaign Council of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, has alleged that the Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Arise News and THISDAY, Nduka Obaigbena, collected substantial sums of money from the military junta to campaign against the June 12, 1993 elections.
The campaign was responding to the Boards of Editors of THISDAY and The ARISE News Channel, who accused the Tinubu campaign of demanding the sack of its journalists over “unfavourable reportage.”
The boards, in a joint editorial published in the December 12 edition of THISDAY newspaper, accused the PCC Special Adviser on Media and Strategic Communication, Dele Alake, and Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, of devising means to remove Arise TV broadcaster, Rufai Oseni, and columnist, Shaka Momodu of THISDAY, from their duties.
However, the Media and Communication Directorate of Tinubu’s PCC has hit back in a statement signed by Alake and Onanuga.
While Alake and Onanuga claimed to have risked their lives to enthrone Nigeria’s democracy, the campaign called out Obaigbena for siding with the military in scuttling a democratic election in 1993.
According to the statement, the Arise TV boss was featured on the United States-based TV network, CNN, to justify the military’s annulment of the election and the continuation of dictatorship.
APC Presidential Candidate, Bola Tinubu
The APC campaign also accused Obaigbena of using his media outfits to hurt its presidential candidate.
“He even featured on the CNN to justify the annulment of the election and the continuation of military dictatorship. Yet, this man dares to preach on public morality and the national interest. He even claims that Alake and Onanuga are envious of him! How preposterous!! What is there to be envious from a man whose business practices and personal lifestyle offend every known decency,” the statement reads.
“Mr. Alake and Onanuga can never be jealous of a man who uses extortion, subterfuge, and cheap blackmail as his working capital. Here is a publisher who deployed his media group in aid of the immoral and illegal presidential ambition of a sitting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) even when this flagrantly violated and threatened the integrity of that critical institution.
“It is absurd when Obaigbena uses his media outfits to push the false narrative of Tinubu’s link with narcotics in the US, when a member of his Board of Editors and Arise TV anchor, Dr. Reuben Abati, was a running mate in 2019 to the governorship candidate of the PDP in Ogun State, the late Senator Buruji Kashamu; a man who had been indicted for narcotics trafficking in the US and was a fugitive from the laws of that country until his death.
“The same Abati remains a card carrying member of the PDP and yet, shamelessly pontificates and postures on ARISE TV as a dispassionate analyst.
“Lest it be forgotten, Abati was Media Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan and was detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2015 for reportedly collecting N500 million from ex-National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki purportedly on behalf of the media.
“Obaigbena himself was detained for weeks and made to refund N600 million by the EFCC, which was part of the diverted funds for arms purchase for the Nigerian military under Jonathan.
“Obaigbena as president of NPAN also collected millions of Naira meant as compensation for the media owners whose papers were seized by overzealous security agents during the Jonathan presidency. Many newspapers reported that they did not get the money.”
The recent back-and-forth is the latest in the conflict between Arise TV and the Tinubu campaign.
The campaign recently rejected the TV network’s invitation to a town hall meeting of presidential candidates.
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