Bayelsa: Jonathan Opens Up On Betrayal, Blackmail, Banal Talks

By Emmanuel Aziken

President Goodluck Jonathan has flatly denied working against the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the recent governorship election in Bayelsa State as he Monday firmly rebuked former Governor Sule Lamido for peddling lies to suit his fancy.

Dr. Jonathan in a statement issued through his media adviser, Ikechukwu Eze also rubbished insinuations by Lamido that he betrayed the PDP because of possible indictments arising from issues connected with Malabu Oil.

It was the first time that Jonathan would be speaking on the loss by the PDP of the state to the All Progressives Congress, APC.

In bringing Lamido to task, President Jonathan also cast ironic humour on Lamido asking him whether he was also blackmailed into ceding Jigawa State to the APC in 2015?

Lamido had blamed Jonathan saying variously that he was blackmailed by the APC on account of Malambu and also saying that the former president was angry with the outgoing governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson.

In his first public comment on insinuations that he betrayed the PDP, Dr. Jonathan said:

“We wish to state categorically, that Dr. Jonathan remains a faithful member of the PDP and had no reason to have worked against his political party in the last election. That the PDP lost in the gubernatorial election to APC is unfortunate, but attributing the defeat to the former President is to be gratuitously obsessed with blackmail and red herring.”

On the visit to him by other party leaders, he said:

“Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as an elder statesman, is a father figure to all Nigerians. His door is open to all who wish to pay him courtesy visits or seek his counsel. That should not mean that he automatically subscribes to whatever political agenda his visitors subscribe to.

“While he was president, former President Jonathan had the largeness of heart to receive then members of the All Progressive Congress at Aso Rock Presidential villa, including Muhammadu Buhari, who he conferred an award on in 2014.

“Ahead of the last governorship election, most of the gubernatorial aspirants and candidates from different political parties in Bayelsa state visited Jonathan as a father of the state and that is a role the former President will continue to play.”

President Jonathan also dismissed the claim that he was blackmailed into supporting the APC on account of possible indictment from the Malabu controversy as fairy tale saying that he did no wrong and was not involved in the transactions.

Dr. Jonathan who is increasingly emerging as an international statesman said that issues around Malabu spread through international boundaries saying that settling it in Nigeria would be no respite for anyone.

“It is important to establish at this point that Mr. Lamido probably knows very little about the Malabu case, for which he was not supposed to have commented blindly. In the first place, the Malabu oil block was not given out by Jonathan. It was a deal that was sealed during the time of late head of state, Gen. Sani Abacha. We feel that Mr. Lamido is in a position to know that the business of oil exploration has an international dimension, as such, it is clear that it is not only the Nigerian Government that is looking into the Malabu case.

“If that is the case, he should also have known that there are atleast three other countries outside Africa that are investigating the matter. Assuming without conceding that the former President Jonathan is culpable as Lamido alleged, would a trade off deal with the Nigerian Government also free him from blame in other countries like Italy, United Kingdom and the United States?

His Excellency Goodluck Jonathan is convinced that Mr. Lamido’s awkward intervention in this matter was deliberately designed as a form of blackmail. Having tried many other ways to discredit the former President to no avail, Mr. Lamido is now scheming to project Malabo as Jonathan’s Achilles heel. Here again he has failed because the true story of Malabo is already very well known to Nigerians.”

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