FG denies Investigating Goodluck Jonathan and Patience

The official spokesperson for the Federal Government, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Tuesday said the Federal Government, under President Muhammadu Buhari, is not investigating former President, Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed stated this while speaking to journalists in Oro, Kwara State.

The minister said it would be wrong to assume that the Federal Government was persecuting Jonathan and his wife.

Mohammed said Dame Patience came out to say the $15m was hers, stating that the EFCC did persecute her for it.

He said, “If you look at the history of Mrs. Patience Jonathan’s issue, I think she was the one that came out to claim that the money found in the accounts of one of the aides to the former President, her husband, belonged to her.

“It was not the EFCC that claimed so. She claimed that the money that the guy was being prosecuted for belonged to her. It was only then they later found an extra $5m in another account.

“It is not as if anybody has gone out to probe Mrs. Jonathan directly or indirectly. Rather Mrs. Jonathan was the one that said ‘that money for which you are accusing Mr. X actually belongs to me. So, you cannot start talking of prosecution or persecution.”

The Minister also said it was wrong to accuse Buhari’s government of being partisan, selective and vindictive in its anti-corruption war as he said APC members found guilty of corruption would not be spared.

He said, “People have always said that no APC politician had been investigated. The question is ‘those who are those being prosecuted today, for what reasons are they being prosecuted?

“It is wrong to say that the government is only investigating and prosecuting PDP members. We have not even started investigating the oil and gas industry. It is not about going out to investigate PDP. No!

‘‘We lost about 15,000 people. Nobody can, in honesty, accuse the FG of being one sided.’’