The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) has issued a statement confirming they received N50 million from the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
It will be recalled that the former editor of ThisDay, Nduka Obaigbena, to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had revealed that the Guild received the said amount from the past administration.
In the statement, the NGE notes that the organization did indeed receive N50 million from the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. However, they claimed the funds were a donation given to the NGE at a fundraising dinner in April 2014.
The dinner was intended to raise money for the construction of a secretariat, the Editor’s Plaza. According to the NGE N50 million was presented to them by former Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mr. Labaran Maku, and deposited in their Zenith Bank Account.
The organization also attacked President Muhammadu Buhari, insinuating that the recent attempts to drag the NGE into Dasukigate are without merit and most likely motivated by President Buhari’s desire for revenge for earlier statements made by the NGE regarding the president’s war on corruption.
“It is regrettable that an earlier statement by the Guild on the anti-corruption war of the government of President Muhammadu Buhari may not be unconnected with recent attempts to drag the Guild into a matter in which it has no case whatsoever,” the statement noted.
In December, the EFCC interrogating Mr. Obaigbena for questioning for his connection to the $2.1 billion misappropriated by the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki for the purposes of bankrolling the PDP’s presidential campaign.