Online Publishers Accuse Presidential Campaign of Diverting N150 Million Advert Funds

Professional journalists who have taken to online publishing in Nigeria have

resolved to boycott the activities of political parties in Nigeria with

immediate effect. The online publishers who met in Lagos State on Saturday to review the

activities of political parties in relation to advert patronage rose to a

conclusion that campaign organisations of the political parties have

deliberately diverted advertising funds meant for online news platforms in

the country. A situation, they roundly condemned and called on all news publishing online

platforms in the country to shun all party related activities until the

abnormally is addressed. The publishers expressed disgust at the gimmick of the campaign

organisations to use the advertisement streaming platforms of Google and

Prest Ads among others to place the advertisements, paying little or

nothing for it instead of dealing directly with Nigerian publishers who

are creating jobs for millions of Nigerians in the online industry.

In that regard, the publishers ordered the immediate stoppage of online

political advertisements with foreign inputs with immediate effect.The

publishers gathered that one of the two major political parties in the

country had budgeted not less than N150 million for online advertisement.

However, till date, no credible online news website has indicated it had

benefitted from the N150 million.The Deputy Director General of one of the

campaign organisations told an online publisher at the Presidential Villa

in Abuja that approval had been given and money released for the party's

advertisements on credible news websites but expressed surprise that the

money has been diverted.He wondered what could have happened to the money.

Information available in that regard was that before the commencement of

the campaigns, 12 online news medium were pencilled down for patronage by

the said political party at a rate of N5 million per medium.The number of

online news platforms to be patronised was later increased to 17 and then

30, making the budget N150 million.This is apart from the millions of

naira budgeted for media relations. Aside from streaming political advertisements through third parties on the

news websites, thus creating the impression that advertisements had been

given, what some of those involved in the campaigns themselves had done

was to quickly open phony news websites and diverted the funds for the

media into private pockets. It was in the light of these revelations that the online publishers

decided to, with immediate effect, boycott the activities of the political

parties, some of which “dump” press statements on the online news websites

as early as 6am and send as many as 10 of such releases in a day.

The post Online Publishers Accuse Presidential Campaign of Diverting N150 Million Advert Funds appeared first on Pointblank News .