Malabu Scandal: Jonathan Dares Lamido To Prove His Allegations

Nigeria’s immediate past President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, Monday
dared former Jigawa State governor, Sule Lamido to publicly show
evidence linking him to the Malabu Oil scandal as alleged by the
latter recently.

Jonathan stated this in a reaction to a media report credited to
Lamido wherein he accused the former President of passive interest
in the November 16 governorship race won by the All Progressives
Congress, APC.

Lamido had in the said interview accused Jonathan of sacrificing
the PDP to buy peace from the President Muhammad Buhari-led
government which is bent on getting to the root of the
controversial oil deal.

In an interview granted a national daily, Lamido was quoted as
saying, “The leadership of the APC and the government are
blackmailing Jonathan and I think I can say it anywhere that he
traded this for his own freedom, ” adding that, “Jonathan worked
against his party because he was very, very angry with (Governor)
Dickson. It was because he (Jonathan) sure knows his problem with
Buhari and his government. And the issue of Malabu, I think, played
a key role”.

Reacting on Monday however, Jonathan took Lamido to cleaners,
labelling him a man with little or no respect for truth and
honour.

In a statement signed by his media adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, the
former President said: “It didn’t matter to him (Lamido) that, as a
well-respected member of the society, he shouldn’t make such
weighty claims against a former President if he was only guessing
like he admitted.

“We really do not know why Mr. Lamido, chose to speak like he
did, especially with such hostility, contempt and lies against
former President Jonathan. However, one thing is clear: In his
anger and apparent bile-filled disposition, Mr Lamido, an otherwise
astute and erudite politician, obviously dropped the ball by
electing not to speak responsibly like a statesman.

“Apparently seized by some inexplicable resentment, Lamido held
on to the lie currently being pushed by a few mischief-makers to
the effect that former President Jonathan helped the APC to win the
last gubernatorial election in Bayelsa State.

“Unfortunately, the former governor jumped into this convenient
bandwagon of grovellers without first thinking of the burden of
substantiating his claim. What to do? Orchestrate a raft of
incongruent drivel of cheap lies to confuse the readers.

“This absurd claim definitely would have gained more traction in
the public space if it really made any sense. But it didn’t. What,
if we may ask Mr Lamido, the correlation between Jonathan
supporting APC because he was angry with Governor Dickson and
Jonathan supporting APC to avoid prosecution over Malabu?

“Where was Lamido and his ‘Malabu problem’ when Jonathan
campaigned vigorously and helped PDP to win Bayelsa governorship
election in 2015, under the same President Buhari? 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.

“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

“We call on anyone, including Mr Sule Lamido, who has any shred
of evidence linking former President Jonathan to any wrongdoing in
the case of the Malabu incident to waste no time in publishing such
evidence or forever remain silent”.

While noting that the Malabu oil bloc was sealed during the
military regime of late General Sani Abacha, Dr. Jonathan said the
scandal was one of global concern and not the exclusive preserve of
the Nigerian government.

He continued: “If that is the case, he (Lamido) should also have
known that there are at least 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?

“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.

“Mr Lamido, we believe, is too smart not to realise that when
the pot conveniently calls the kettle black, it is a grand design
to confuse, deceive and cover up the truth.

“Lamido served as governor of Jigawa State for two terms under
the platform of the PDP after which the ruling APC took over his
state. Is he then telling Nigerians that he cut a deal with APC,
helped the ruling party to procure victory at the polls and take
over his state?

“The fact is that it is not only in Bayelsa State that the
country had experienced such a situation where PDP or even APC had
lost elections to another party. Holding Jonathan responsible for
PDP’s loss in Bayelsa without first investigating the issues that
determined the fate suffered by the party in the state is not only
disingenuous but also detrimental to the image and aspirations of
the party.”

The statement further read: “Rather than cast aspersions and
throw shades because of pre-existing animosities and prejudices
against the former president, what is expected of party leaders
like Mr Lamido is to seek to interrogate whatever went wrong in
Bayelsa, to avert a repeat in another state.

“We believe that further interrogation of Lamido’s other weird
claims is not necessary in this space, lest it gives the
unfortunate interview more attention than it deserves.

“However, we feel that it is important to reiterate, as we have
always done, that former President Jonathan did nothing wrong as
far as the Malabu deal is concerned. He, therefore, doesn’t need to
cut a deal with anybody within or outside Nigeria.

“The fact remains that as recent national events continue to
vindicate former President Jonathan, and as the world continues to
celebrate him, those who are insecure will feed such propaganda to
their media agents to serve their narrow interests.

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