The Independent Nigeria is a daily newspaper published in

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

. Independent Newspapers Limited was incorporated on 17 July 2001 and started operations in October 2001. The company publishes the flagship ''Independent'' newspaper and two editions on weekends: the ''Saturday Independent'' and ''Sunday Independent''.

History

The ''Independent Nigeria'' is a successor to the ''Diet'' newspaper established in 1997 by James Ibori, a close friend of the military ruler General

Sani Abacha Sani Abacha (; (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military dictator and statesman who ruled Nigeria with an iron fist as military head of state from 1993 following a palace coup d'état until his death in 1998. Abacha's seiz ...

. By 1999, most of the ''Diet'' staff had left since they had not been paid for some months. Ibori, who had been elected governor of

Delta State Delta is a States of Nigeria, state in the South South (Nigeria), South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Named after the Niger Delta—a large part of which is in the state—the state was formed from the former Bendel State, on 27 August 1 ...

in April 1999, relaunched the paper in a more colorful and attractive format, but without success. In 2001, the ''Daily Independent'', largely owned by the same publisher, took the place of ''Diet''. In June 2006, Rotimi Durojaiye, an ''Independent'' reporter, was arrested and charged with sedition after writing a report questioning the cost and airworthiness of

Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo (; ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian former army general, politician and statesman who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its president from 1999 to 200 ...

's new presidential jet. The charges were dropped later. In October 2009, the Nigerian Union of Journalists forced a closure of the newspaper. Reasons given were that the paper's management had refused to pay four months' salary arrears and had sacked 21 workers for no just reason. Owner James Ibori intervened, promising to pay the arrears and re-hire the workers, and the strike was called off. The former managing editor, Ted Iwere, left the paper because of these problems. In January 2010, James Akpadem, the new managing editor, said that Ibori was actively involved in efforts to restructure the paper, which was struggling with debt and unpaid salaries. In March 2010, the

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is a Nigerian law enforcement and anti-graft agency that investigates financial crimes and unknown transactions such as advance fee fraud (419 fraud) and money laundering. The EFCC was establ ...

(EFCC) asked that Ibori attend the Abuja headquarters of the Commission on 17 April 2010 "for interview". The ''Daily Independent'' published an editorial that indignantly defended Ibori. Ibori was arrested in May 2010 in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

, in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. He lost an appeal against a ruling that he should be extradited to Britain. By April 2011, the EFCC had Ibori on its "most wanted" list, saying "The suspect is wanted in connection with a N9.2 billion case of Criminal Conspiracy, Theft and Misappriopriation of Public funds belonging to Delta State of Nigeria". On 16 April 2011, Ibori appeared in a British court to charged with a various money laundering and fraud offences.

References

2001 establishments in Nigeria Companies based in Lagos Daily newspapers published in Nigeria Newspapers established in 2001 Newspapers published in Lagos {{Nigeria-newspaper-stub