We have noted with
much regret, the grossly irresponsible, false and mischievous claim by the
Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido that President Goodluck Jonathan
has refused to act on information that a serving minister recently collected a
bribe of $250 million from an oil company.
The
Presidency views the patently bogus allegation reportedly made by the Governor
in a radio interview yesterday as an unacceptable and callous attempt to
unjustly impugn the integrity of President Jonathan and cast aspersions on the
seriousness of his Administration’s efforts to curb corruption.
The allegation and
the claim by Alhaji Lamido that he informed President Jonathan of the
acceptance of the huge bribe by an unnamed minister is absolutely without any
foundation in fact or reality because no such communication has ever taken
place between them.
We abhor Governor
Lamido’s descent to the unscrupulous, reckless and thoughtless peddling of
arrant falsehood in a puerile effort to score cheap political points against
President Jonathan for personal and sectional political gains.
If, as he
claims, Alhaji Lamido has credible information about a minister receiving the
said amount as bribe, he should publicly name the minister involved without
delay and provide evidence to support his allegation.
In the event
that he is unable to do so, he should be prepared to offer an unreserved
apology to the President and Nigerians for his unwarranted and unjust effort to
denigrate, disparage and malign the President and the Federal Government.
While the Jonathan
Presidency will continue to make corrupt public officials answerable for their
actions, it will not succumb to harassment and blackmail by self-seeking
politicians jostling for personal advantage.
Reuben Abati
Special Adviser to
the President (Media & Publicity)
November 15, 2013
Tags
Politics
I strongly believe that there is no smoke without fire, let them take their time, I can assure you that at the end there will be elements of truth. They initially denied the allegations of the Minister of Aviation.
ReplyDeleteS.O.R.
Lamido should take this as a challenge thrown to him by Mr. President. The name of the minister should not be concealed.
ReplyDeleteD president n his people think we are fools abi,Aviation minister which is still a minister wit them dat has been doing shady business too is a lie abi n d 50 golds requested 4 by d presidency 4 independence is a lie too right among many atrocities dat has been happening under dis administrations are all lies,which corruption are they fighting,they are deceiving themselves n dat was y GEJ order d police to distrupt d corruption awareness d other day at Abuja
ReplyDeleteReuben abati whom are you trying to fool by saying gej is fighting corruption?even when the likes of stella oduah(aviation) and aruma oteh(sec) are still part of his government despite the corruption charges levelled against them at different times.as for you gov lamido be man enough to name the minister that gave the bribe to an oil company otherwise i'll also see you as a big liar.gov lamido nigerians are waiting patiently to hear from you.
ReplyDeleteB.K.writes frm Bauchi