Former President Goodluck Jonathan has
debunked the allegation that he fraudulently received N5 billion payments from
pension fund. Apparently reacting to the allegation levied against him as
published in a national daily, not LEADERSHIP, the former president described
the allegation is baseless and unfounded.
Jonathan categorically
stressed that it was a ‘’blatant lie and a cooked up plan’’ to divert the
attention of the general public from the raging ‘Mainagate’ and other
embarrassing scandals.
It would be recalled that the
Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami
reportedly told the Senate ad-hoc committee investigating the return and
reinstatement of ex-pension boss, Adburasheed Maina how a former President was
collecting N5billion monthly from the pension board.
The media adviser to Goodluck
Jonathan, Mr. Ikechukwu Eze in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP Sunday
yesterday in Abuja, said he believed that the story was concocted as part of
the unfolding grand design to always dodge responsibility and blame every evil
act taking place in the present dispensation on the past Jonathan. “Our
attention has been drawn to a story published in a national daily of November
18, 2017 in which Malami was alleged to have told a Senate ad-hoc committee
that an “former President was taking N5billion monthly from the Pension Fund.”
He was also alleged to have sourced the information from the fugitive former
chairman of Pension Reform Task Force Team, Abdul Rasheed Maina who, Malami
admitted to have met in the United Arab Emirate (UAE). “Our initial reaction
was to ignore the story because it was speculative, full of mischief and
rumour-driven, since the National Assembly ‘sources’ were not disclosed and the
former President in question was not identified by name.
“However, since the Pension
Reform Task Force Team served under former President Jonathan, we believe that
the story was concocted as part of the unfolding grand design to always dodge
responsibility and blame every evil act taking place in the present
dispensation on the past Jonathan administration.
In the first place, we do not
believe that AGF Malami made such a claim because he is in a position to know
that it is simply not true. We expect that the Senators, if they were ever told
that, would have dismissed such as a blatant lie, hurriedly cooked up to divert
the attention of the general public from the raging ‘Mainagate’ and other
embarrassing scandals. Let us not forget that the 7th Senate had uncovered
large scale fraud and indicted Maina upon which the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission, EFCC, declared him wanted for pension fraud in 2015.
“We also strongly believe that
Maina, who is alleged to be the source of the false information, could not have
said that. Even for a drowning man, understandably clawing on every straw
for survival and would have been a very wild shot, if it actually came from
him.
“We will simply challenge the
Senate Committee to demand from those who fabricated the spurious claims that
N5 billion was collected monthly from the Pension Fund by ‘a former President’
to give more details and produce evidence of how these transactions were made.
‘’They should be able to
establish whether the monthly payment of N5billion to ‘an ex-President’ was
made by cash or through bank transfers, in which case they should name the
banks involved. We advise that this matter should not be allowed to go the way
of similar ones that have been swept under the carpet.’’
The former president said that
he have no doubt that this is just another futile effort to cover up the
ineptitude and corrupt tendencies of members of the present administration, who
are now caught up in the Maina mess.
Goodluck Jonathan averred that
Nigerians have not forgotten that the same forces initially claimed that it was
Jonathan’s men that quietly brought back Maina from exile and reinstated him in
office under the Buhari administration.
He continued: ‘’Again, we
restate our position that we very much doubt if AGF Malami really said what was
reported in the Saturday Sun, because if he did, he would be placing his
integrity and that of his office in a difficult position.
“We believe that more of these
ridiculous and manifestly unintelligent allegations will be raised against the
Jonathan Administration by agents of the corrupt elements in the present
Government. Good a thing, Nigerians are no fools.’’
He added that the era of
propaganda and lies are over. Adding that the scales have fallen from the eyes
of innocent Nigerians, and they no longer believe those reprehensible lies.
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