Lagos — Four founding members of Newswatch magazine, among them Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese, Yakubu Muhammed and Soji Akinrinade, have kicked against plans by the magazine's new owner Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim to shut it for restructuring.
The founding members voiced out their protest in Lagos yesterday at a news briefing.
Ekpu said the decision by Ibrahim to shut the magazine was unilateral that does not go down well with other shareholders. Ekpu expressed the resolve of all those concerned to challenge the decision.
Ekpu also accused Ibrahim of breaching several terms of the agreement that were reached at the stage of allowing him to take over the leadership of the news magazine. He argued that the four of them who handed the leadership of Newswatch magazine never knew that he will change and start taking unilateral steps without involving others.
On his part, Yakubu Muhammed said the decision to sell Newswatch magazine was not born out of cash-crunch as being speculated but because they were convinced that the magazine should diversify its investment and that include, publishing a daily newspaper, run a radio station, establish an online news medium, among others.
Also contributing, Dan Agbese said Ibrahim also defaulted in paying the actual amount needed to maintain his 51 percent shareholding in the organization's acquisition. He also said even though they agreed with Jimoh to float a newspaper to bear "Newswatch newspaper" title, they are still being kept in the dark as to who and who will be in the Board of Directors and how the recruitment exercise he advertised on the pages of Mirror newspaper went.
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