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Taraba gov evasive over payment for adverts on Jonathan, Danjuma

By Charles Akpeji, Jalingo
11 February 2015   |   4:43 am
THE alleged continued refusal of the Acting Governor of Taraba State, Alhaji Sani Abubakar Danladi, to offset the advert bills earlier placed in some national dailies for President Goodluck Jonathan and retired Gen. T.Y. Danjuma’s birthday have become a source of concern to journalists and PDP chieftains in the state.   The coloured adverts, which…

THE alleged continued refusal of the Acting Governor of Taraba State, Alhaji Sani Abubakar Danladi, to offset the advert bills earlier placed in some national dailies for President Goodluck Jonathan and retired Gen. T.Y. Danjuma’s birthday have become a source of concern to journalists and PDP chieftains in the state.

  The coloured adverts, which were placed in four national dailies on November 23 and December 9, 2014 respectively, and not yet paid for, as learnt by The Guardian, were meant to felicitate with both President Jonathan and Gen. Danjuma on their birthdays.

  Several efforts by the representatives of the affected media organisations in the state to retrieve the funds from the Acting Governor, whom The Guardian learnt is in charge of the payment, have failed.

  Among the efforts put in place by the affected correspondents to ensure the payment as their various organisations are bent in throwing them out of their jobs, which turned out to be a mirage, was to pass through some close associates of Danladi.

  Sad by the development, the chairman of the Correspondent Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Taraba State Council, Wole Ayodele, whose media organisation was as well affected, implored those closed to the acting governor to prevail on him “to pay us our money because our office are on our necks.”

  “The adverts, which were placed since last year”, he said, “have long been overdue for payment. So, my colleagues and I are pleading with him to make the funds available to us before our organisations would show us the way out of our jobs”.

  Collaborating with Ayodele, other representatives of the affected media houses, appealed to Danladi to tow the paths of justice by paying, noting that this is the first government in the history of the state that would be sitting on funds meant for the payment of adverts.

  The Guardian learnt that when confronted by journalists after the 2015 budget was assented to last week, Danladi promised to settle the bills last Monday.

  Some of the PDP chieftains, who spoke with The Guardian on the issue, expressed their dismay at the way and manner the names of both President Jonathan and T. Y. Danjuma are being smeared by Danladi.

  Seeking for anonymous, one of the chieftains said: “It is very unfortunate that he has refused to pay that money until now. I must confess to you that we really sympathise with you guys.”

  Citing the way funds meant for the state are being spent on things that have no positive interest to the people, he stressed on the need for the state government to offset the advert bills “and stop making mockery of T.Y. Danjuma who has fought tooth and nail to stabilise the politics of our dear state.”

  According to him: “As far as I am concerned, majority of us are not pleased by the development. How much is the amount that they refused to pay considering what T.Y. Danjuma and Mr. President have done for us in this state.

 “One of the major problems we have in this state is lip service. Many of us pretend we love T.Y. Danjuma. But I must confess to you, coupled with this scenario on ground, their love for him (Danjuma) is because of what they are getting from him. If not, how much is involved in those adverts that he (Danladi) has refused to pay?” 

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