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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Folio buys Daily Times, pays N1.25bnGBENGA OGUNTIMEHIN, Abuja FORTY-FIVE days after itwon the bid for The DailyTimes of Nigeria (DTN) PLC, Folio Communications Limited (FCL) on Tuesday paid the bid price of N1.25 billion to conclude the privatisation of the 78-year-old newspaper conglomerate. Folio paid the bid price four days to the expiration of the July 31 deadline given it by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) to pay the money in lump sum after being granted concession not to pay 10 per cent of the amount 15 days after it emerged DTN�s preferred bidder. Under the privatisation rule, a preferred bidder is expected to pay 10 per cent of the bid price 15 days after winning the bid and the balance within 90 days except exempted from doing so. BPE�s Head, Communications and Marketing, Mr. Charles Odenigbo told the DAILY TIMES in a telephone interview that Mr. Fidelis Anosike paid in a cheque for N1.25 billion to the bureau�s Director of Services, Ms. Abiodun Wright, on Tuesday afternoon, With the payment, Folio will now acquire DTN under the privatisation policy of the Federal Government. It would be recalled that the Federal Government through the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) opened the financial bid for the sale of DTN Plc on June 14 this year, in which two communications outfits, Mindspring Communications Limited and Folio Commu-nications Limited, fought for the majority equity in the country�s oldest newspaper conglomerate. Folio, however, edged out Mindspring when it offered to pay N1.25 billion for the 96.05 per cent Federal Government�s equity in the conglomerate as against Mindspring�s N1.051 billion. Folio Communications reached an agreement with BPE for the payment of the lump sum by the end of July. Efforts to get in touch with Anosike was futile as he was not in the office for interview. There is a firm belief, however, that with the conclusion of the DTN privatisation, the newspaper would now reclaim its towering position while backlog of staff salaries would be cleared as earlier promised by BPE. The DAILY TIMES was founded in 1925 by four firms � Sir Adeyemo Alakija, Mr. V.R. Oshorne, Mr. I. A. Archer and Sir Richard Barrow and was then known as "The Nigerian DAILY TIMES". Its Vol. 1. No.1 Tuesday July 1, 1926 mission statement titled: "Without fear of favour" revised in 1963 reads in part: "With the DAILY TIMES, we are breaking entirely new grounds in local journalism. The paper will be conducted on lines that have never been attempted before in this country; and representing as it does informed opinion, it will be a in the history of Nigeria.... "Stating however as a modest four-page sheet, we hope with the progress of time, to grow into a paper will compare without a blush with any publication of its kind in other parts of the Empire. Like our great contemporary, the London Times � The Nigerian DAILY TIMES is a national newspaper and will be attached to no particular creed or party... "Except occasionally and in particular grave matters, we shall perhaps for several years to come maintain a detached attitude towards local politics which have never up to now risen above petty personal squabbles..." The newspaper started operation with a print-run of 2000 copies on June 1, 1926, multiplied to 350,000 in the 1970s while SUNDAY TIMES printed over 500,000. Apart from having Ernest Ikoli as its first Editor, other veterans such as Alhaji Babatunde Ajose popularly known "the Doyen of Nigerian Journalism", Chief Segun Osoba, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi, Tunji Oseni, Innocent Oparadike, Peter Enahoro and Ndu Ughanmadu have presided over the affairs of the 78 years newspaper conglomerate. In 1976, the military government of Olusegun Obasanjo acquired the paper following its hard stance on owning national issues. This development was widely criticised especially doing the time it was made as annex of the Federal Ministry of Information, a move which engendered excessive government interference. The declining fortunes of the newspaper climaxed with the annulment of the June 12 1993 Presidential election as those directing its affairs compromised their positions on the alter of political subserviency
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