Newspaper mogul, Nduka Obaigbena, publisher of Thisday newspaper was quoted in the Vanguard of 12thDecember, 2015, as replying thus to the EFCC, `We have never received any suspicious funds from the Office of the National Security Adviser. All funds received from the Office of the National Security Adviser were payments for compensation to mitigate the dastardly Boko Haram twin bombings of the Thisday Newspapers offices in Abuja and Kaduna on Thursday April 26, 2012, during which four innocent Nigerian lives were lost.’
So Thisday got N550 million and NPAN got N120 million compensation for losses inflicted directly or indirectly by Boko Haram. Was it not in the Bible that it was said that to those who have more will be given. And from those who have little that little will be taken from then and given to those who have! Nduka knew the then president and was not only able to get compensation for his newspaper but was also able to help the NPAN. What of those four `innocent’ citizens who lost their lives?’ Did they know the president? Did they or their families get compensated? What of all the other unfortunate families who lost as many as four members to the Boko Haram?
For the last few weeks many names have been mentioned, household names, children of those with household names, the rich and the famous, party moguls and, to use the famous appellation, `chieftains’, all benefited from money that should have been used to purchase equipment to fight our common enemies, Boko Haram. Well, the story of Nigeria’s lost billions is just unravelling. Hold tight to your seat belt because virtually everybody whose face has been gracing or disgracing the pages of newspapers will be shown to have joined in looting Nigeria. Where will it all end? Who will protect the ordinary citizen?