Jonathan Reacts To Fraud Saga: Some People Are Threatened By My International Profile

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has denied allegations in the media that he received $200m from the $1.3bn Malabu oil deal.

He said that it is sponsored by those who were threatened by his rising profile in the international community, adding that the story was meant to tarnish his image.

Jonathan, who stated this in a statement by his Media Adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, on Tuesday, described a story published by Buzzfeed as false.

The ex-President said, “It is one more in the series of fake news sponsored by those threatened by Dr. Jonathan’s continuously rising profile in the international community.

“Commonsense should have shown the purveyors of this slander that the Malabu oil deal far predated the Jonathan regime and it would only make sense for him to be bribed if he had a time machine to go back in time to when the deal was struck.”

According to Jonathan, the report relied on hearsay evidence from a man, who provided no substance to back up his false claim.

He said, “The man quoted by the report said he ‘assumed’ that Dr. Jonathan would be bribed.”

The former President wondered how the assumption of a man could be enough to smear the reputation of a patriot and international statesman of his calibre.

“The report wrongly claimed that ‘Jonathan and Etete’ had known each other for years, according to Shell staff, when Jonathan served as a tutor to Etete’s children while he was a minister.”

He said that the claim was clearly ridiculous, adding that nothing could be further from the truth.

The statement said, “In the first place, the former President couldn’t have been a ‘tutor’ to Etete’s children without first establishing a contact with the family. This is because Jonathan met Etete, who served as the Petroleum Minister in Gen. (Sani) Abacha’s military regime for the first time under the succeeding civilian administration, when he was already the deputy governor of Bayelsa State. Even then, the fact remains that ex-President Jonathan has never met any of Etete’s children.

“Jonathan could not have been anybody’s private tutor during that period because he was already in the directorate cadre in the Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, (now NDDC), having already left the academics, at the time Etete was a serving minister.”