By KADIRI ABDULRAHMAN

Yakubu Mohammed, one of the founders of Nigeria’s first weekly news magazine, Newswatch, says efforts are on to regain ownership of the magazine from businessman, Mr Jimoh Ibrahim.

Mohammed said this in his memoir, “Beyond Expectations.”

He said that the founders had decided to expand the operations of the weekly magazine in 2011, after 25 years of successfully publishing it.

According to him, they decided to expand operations to include a daily newspaper and a radio station.

“We also planned to reposition our nascent book company, Newswatch Books Limited, and make our library the best media archive in this part of Africa and ,thereafter, retire.

“To make this dream come true, we decided to shop for more investors as we did when we conceived the idea of Newswatch in 1984.

“We involved our managers in search of credible investors.

” One of them, Bankole Makinde, our advertisement manager, introduced to us Jimoh Ibrahim, a businessman and publisher as a possible core investor,” he said.

Mohammed recalled that the Newswatch team, as well as Ibrahim, were excited after holding preliminary discussions.

“Ray, Dan, Soji (Akinrinade) and I walked into the warm embrace of Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim in May 2011.

“There was nothing to indicate to us that we were about to sign the death warrant of our company, Newswatch Communications Limited.

“We did not anticipate that any fate worse than our 13-day ordeal in Abacha’s gulag would come our way again.

“But the calamity that befell us after a handshake with Jimoh Ibrahim was as painful as death,” he said.

The veteran journalist said that the meeting with Ibrahim signalled a reversal of fortune and also the death of a dream.

“Newswatch, the darling of media consumers in Nigeria and abroad, had suffered an almost irreversible misfortune.

“At the time of writing this, it has been off the streets for 13 years,” he said.

He said that the investor, who initially announced retention of the Newswatch founders as executive directors and consulting editors for a period of two years, gradually started reneging on agreed terms.

“We were to resume after our vacation. But this was not to be so.

“In the same vein, he equally failed to pay the N510 million for his 51 per cent shares in line with the share purchase agreement.

“After pussyfooting for a while, he reluctantly approved that the company should pay us our retirement benefits.

“For this, he made available a total sum N310 million, saying to us that this was what the company could afford,” Mohammed said.

He said that until they finally parted ways, the company could still not afford to pay the balance of their benefits.

Mohammed described this experience as a “small matter” compared to the fate that later befell them.

“After holding board meetings for one year, he whimsically closed down the company in 2012 when staff were complaining about unpaid salaries and allowances.

“Because we intervened on behalf of the staff, he said we were no longer directors of the company,” he wrote.

He said that the Issues had resulted in unending litigation, which have been on for 12 years.

Mohammed, however, said that they had also decided to explore other means, including out of court settlement, to get back the company.

“On the advice of prominent leaders in this country, including President Olusegun Obasanjo and Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, we approached Sen. Ibrahim to discuss the matter,” he said. (NAN)