I Didn`t Mastermind $620,000 Bribe or Plan to Unseat Tambuwal - Jonathan

I Didn`t Mastermind $620,000 Bribe or Plan to Unseat Tambuwal - Jonathan

Presidency has denounced insinuations that President Goodluck Jonathan masterminded the offering six hundred and twenty thousand dollars bribe to Farouk Lawan, and intends to use the same bribery scandal to unseat the leadership of the national assembly.

A statement issued by Reuben Abati, Thursday, said, neither the President nor anyone acting on his request or order has anything to do with the scandal that has sadly engulfed the House ad-hoc committee on fuel subsidy.

Presidency decried the lame and diversionary attempt by some newspapers to drag the person and office of the President into the very unsavoury bribery scandal involving the Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Fuel Subsidy Probe Ad-Hoc Committee and chief Femi Otedola, a well-known petroleum products marketer, and an ally of President Jonathan.

According to the statement, the mischievous insinuation in today’s editions of the newspapers that the entire affair, in which the two key players have publicly confessed their roles, is part of a plot by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the executive arm of government to unseat the leadership of the House of Representatives, is totally false and baseless.

Abati stated that for the benefit of unwary members of the public who may be deceived by the political innuendoes now being woven into the subsidy probe bribe affair, President Jonathan wishes to affirm that he has absolutely no reason or desire to meddle in the affairs of the House of Representatives and its leadership. The attempt to drag the Presidency into the matter is entirely speculative and without factual foundation.

He further stated that against the background of its avowed commitment to the effective prosecution of the war against corruption in Nigeria, the Presidency notes with satisfaction, that given the seriousness of the scandal, the House of Representatives has already recalled its members from recess for a special session to deliberate on it tomorrow.

Abati urged the media to allow members of the House and law enforcement agencies to conduct and conclude investigations without further unhelpful distractions.

Continuing, he said, the recent developments notwithstanding, President Jonathan’s directive to the Attorney-General of the Federation on the report of the Ad-Hoc Committee on Fuel Subsidy, as adopted by the House of Representatives, subsists and he fully expects that all those indicted in the report will be duly investigated and prosecuted if a prima facie case is established against them.