Malabu: I have no account, property outside Nigeria, says Jonathan

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has reacted to the report
that claimed that lawyers for the Federal Government had, in a
London court filing, accused him of accepting bribes in order “to
broker a $1.3 billion oil deal eight years ago.”

While dismissing the report as a recycled falsehood that is
blatantly dishonest, cheap, and predictable, he also said he had
never opened an account outside Nigeria. He also claimed that he
does not own any property outside the country.

He stated this in a statement issued by his media adviser, Mr
Ikechukwu Eze, on Saturday.

The former President was reacting to the alleged filling of a
case by the Federal Government in London on the controversial
Malabu oil deal.

He said there was nothing new to what he described as fabricated
bribery claim which he said he had debunked in the past.

He said, “Former President Goodluck Jonathan did not ask for or
collect any bribes, neither has he been charged for asking or
collecting bribes, neither will he ever be charged with asking for
or collecting bribes, because such never happened.

“That this particular dispute predated the Jonathan
administration and survives it. That former President Jonathan is
61 years old and throughout his life has never opened an account,
nor owned property outside Nigeria.”

He challenged those behind “this latest propaganda” to make
deposition (in court) on it.

Eze said the fact remained that as recent national events
continued to vindicate Jonathan, and the world continued to
celebrate him, those he said who were insecure would feed such
propaganda to their media agents to feed their inferiority
complex.

He added, “In fact, we expected something like this ever since
it was announced that former President Jonathan would lead the
Election Observation Mission of the Electoral Institute for
Sustainable Democracy in Africa to South Africa’s national and
provincial elections.

“We are well aware that this claim was intentioned to eclipse
the goodwill and positive reports of former President Jonathan’s
diligent engagement in South Africa’s national and provisional
elections.

“The fact that most major media houses in the country refused to
republish this falsehood bears out our conviction that Nigerians
can no longer be deceived by hollow and diversionary claims of
corruption, in the face of worsening state of affairs in the
country.

“We have always made it clear that beyond this wave of
conjecture, former President Jonathan was not linked, indicted or
charged with collecting any monies as kickbacks or bribes from ENI
by the Italian authorities or any other law enforcement body the
world over.

“It bears repeating that the documents relating to the
transactions and decisions of the Federal Government on the Malabo
issue, during the Jonathan administration, are in the relevant
Government offices, where they are accessible.

“We would like to point out that all the actions taken by the
Jonathan administration in relation to activities in the oil
industry were legally conducted by relevant Nigerian Government
officials and were carried out in the best interest of the
country.”

He said that whether in office or out of office, former
President Jonathan still “does not own any bank account, business
or real estate outside Nigeria.”

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