Interview, News

Daily Times Boss, Fidelis Anosike Cries Out

Publisher of Daily Times, Mr. Fidelis Anosike has cried out to Nigerians… “Nobody is above the law. If I can go to prison, anybody can go to prison. I am ready to die for Daily Times to be alive. It doesn’t matter, so nobody is going to scare me, The Daily Times will continue publishing.”

Fidelis Anosike, Publisher, Daily Times Newspaper

“Daily Times was sold wholly to Folio Communications Limited. It was not a consortium sale, but, somewhere along the line, some of these people came and they wanted to buy some of the properties that Daily Times had and we agreed to sell one or two of the properties to them and they gave us cheques and some of the cheques bounced and we are currently in court with them over dud cheques.”

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“But, the current issues we are facing now is that Daily Times was invaded with a purported Magistrates’ Court order. That also tells us how Nigeria is and how dangerous doing business in Nigeria is. Imagine a situation where a publisher like me is taken to a police station and the next day he was bundled to a magistrates’ court in Mpape, in Abuja.”

“The next day, I found myself in prison, what will you do? But, I had to follow the due process to come out. Look at the heap of disconnected air conditioners the invaders attempted to cart away before they were stopped. See also several television stands from where televisions sets were removed, including computers, and a 100 KVA generating set.”

“One of those DTN has issues with is a property magnate and this is what he does. He sees where there is conflict, he moves in there, provides the weaker party, or so to speak money and in this case, he gave them N700 million, to prosecute this because he targeted Daily Times properties. But, what I am trying to do here now is to do my best, to let Nigerians understand what happened. We have it under control, so to speak.”

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“We have been trying to turn around this company. I think we have been doing a good job of it. The paper is on the street, every single day, in the last five years, but, all they are targeting is the assets. Daily Times has had many people who have died working there, so many journalists have not been paid over time, so, what if the assets go, what happens to them?”

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“This is a case where the Court of Appeal has said they have no locus standi in the matter, because there was a final out-of-court settlement in all issues regarding Daily Times in 2006 and entered as a court judgment. So, this is really scary, but, it is our country; that is the situation we found ourselves. But, we are not going to rest as there are people who call themselves money bags and politicians in disguise, they sit down and do all sorts of things.”