Jonathan Disowns Comments on Biafra, Dismisses 2015 Aso Clinic Probe

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has dismissed as false, an online report which claimed that the he delivered a speech in Texas, United States, where he spoke on the Niger Delta in the agitation for the state of Biafra. 

In a related development President Jonathan faulted media reports which claimed that the House of Representatives planned to investigate his administration over N11.1 billion State House Clinic budgets between 2015-2017 as he was not responsible for the implementation of 2015 budget and therefore would be the wrong person to answer questions on provisions of a budget he was not part of.

 A statement issued Friday by his Media Adviser, Ikechukwu Eze stated that Jonathan couldn’t have delivered a speech in Texas since he had neither travelled to the U.S. since he left office in 2015, nor sent any representation to any event in the state. 

“We have just been informed of the text of a speech fabricated in the name of former President Goodluck Jonathan in which he was alleged to have addressed the issue of the place of the Niger Delta in the agitation for Biafra.  This is pure fiction which serves no purpose, other than probably massage the ego of the faceless writer. 
“The false report which is now spreading in the social media began this way: ‘Former President of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebere Jonathan yesterday delivered a lecture at Texas, United States…’.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Dr. Jonathan has neither been to Texas since he left office in 2015, nor sent anybody to represent him at any programme in the U.S. state. 
“Our advice to those who engage in this kind of untoward behaviour is to repent and apply their creative energy to productive ends, in line with the efforts to build the nation we all will be proud of,” he said.

On the State House Clinic budget, he said, “The House of representatives resolved Thursday 12 October, 2015, to probe 2015-2017 allocations to Aso Rock Clinic and some media reports are needlessly dragging the name of former President Goodluck Jonathan into it. We had thought that the media should be the first to remind Nigerians that since Dr. Jonathan left office on May 29, 2015, he had absolutely nothing to do with the implementation of the budget for that year.

“For emphasis, the 2015 Appropriation Bill which was passed by the parliament in April was signed into law in May, 2015. And since the procurement process, based on the new procurement law, takes at least three months to complete, there was no way Jonathan would have had anything to do with the budget implementation for 2015, before vacating Aso Rock Villa on May 29, 2015.

“Going by the way some people make insinuations on issues that border on the development of our country, it would appear as if Ex-President Jonathan had been in office since independence in 1960, and probably still be in charge today. We expect media houses to always do proper investigations to avoid the convenient choice of always using Jonathan as the scapegoat for the misdeeds of others.”

(Thisday)

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