"[2][3][4] The Punch was founded by James Aboderin, an accountant, and Sam Amuka, a columnist and editor at the Daily Times of Nigeria.

[7] Punch Nigeria Limited was registered on August 8, 1970, under the Companies Act of 1968 to publish newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals of public interest.

It was designed to perform the tripartite functions of the popular mass media: informing, educating, and entertaining Nigerians and the world at large.

On April 29, 1990, a week after an attempted coup d'état against the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida, the company was closed down, lasting a month while the then deputy editor of the publication, Chris Mammah, was detained for 54 days.

This decree would later be cancelled on July 24, 1994, resulting in a proscription of all Punch titles including Toplife, which had been revived and published as a weekly magazine in the meantime.

It was not until October 1, 1995, that the government de-proscribed the publication via a national day broadcast by the then military head of state Sani Abacha.

[citation needed] From 1998 to 1999, the Research and Marketing Services (RMS) Lagos published independent surveys in which The Punch was rated as the most widely read newspaper.