All is not quite well in the BusinessDay newsroom as editors are constantly under pressure to concoct one negative NNPC story after another whether based on facts or not.
MoneyCentral learnt that the BusinessDay Publisher, one Mr Frank Aigbogun, instructed his Editors to go on wild Negative story fishing expeditions after his requests from the NNPC seeking outlandish sums of money in foreign currency was rebuffed by the national oil Company.
The publisher has also made both direct and indirect efforts to meet with the Group CEO of NNPC, but has been unsuccessful.
“The Publisher wants to hit them (NNPC) so they can call him and sit him down for a deal,” one disillusioned staff at the media House told MoneyCentral.
Sources familiar with the matter at NNPC said Mr Aigbogun sent a letter demanding millions of dollars from the organisation.
The Publisher, who is known for non-remittances of staff pensions multi years at a time in breach of the Pension Reform Act, has been sued several times by ex-staff for non-payment of their entitlements.
“Some of the things he asked us to write have been spurious. So, we have stylishly sidestepped ones without facts,” another insider at the media house told MoneyCentral.
A recent Editorial by the BusinessDay newspaper attacking NNPC was riddled with errors, non sequitur attacks and illogical arguments.
Another story released September 20th in the print edition titled “11 Plc, Total Energies, AA. Rano, others pay N766/litre to lift Dangote petrol” was slanted to imply that NNPC was still subsidizing petrol after the publisher told the editors to push that angle, insiders said.
The story claimed that marketers have started lifting the products at N765.99 from Dangote Refinery through NNPC, the sole off-taker of the product.
Femi Soneye, spokesperson of NNPC, has however repeatedly said that the NNPC bought petrol from Dangote refinery at N898 per litre and that market forces now determine domestic pump prices.
A third source said that while the recent Dangote vs NNPC news has led to a lot of stories in the news, the Publisher is “pursuing his own personal interests in the matter.”
A 2020 report said Aigbogun is owing his long suffering staff and ex-journalists a whooping backlog of unremitted Pensions contributions deducted from their salaries that amounts to N435 million.
The Publisher who has homes in Banana Island and the United Kingdom (U.K) is funding his profligate lifestyle off of the sweat of his poor workers, insiders said.
The Publisher also took billion-naira loan from a bank to buy land on the Island in Lagos to build its corporate Headquarters.
“He has not started the building project and interest is accumulating on the loan, which he is close to defaulting on, that’s why he is pressuring the news staff and advert executives,” a recent insider at the media company said.
