Patience
Jonathan, former first lady, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to
call Ibrahim Magu, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC), to order.
Accusing Magu of being bent on
destroying her family, the former president’s wife said she believes
that she is being targeted for the role she played in the 2015 election.
Jonathan’s
wife was actively involved in the reelection bid of her husband. She
toured the length and breadth of the country, campaigning for him.
In
a statement sent to TheCable on Monday, Belema Meshack-Hart, chief
press secretary to the former first lady, said despite campaigning
against him in the presidential election, President Donald Trump did not
move against Michelle Obama.
“We believe that she is being
systematically persecuted and punished because of her unflinching
support for her husband during the 2015 elections,” the statement read.
“President
Buhari should be reminded that his wife also supported him in all the
elections he contested against her husband, former President Jonathan,
but Dr. Jonathan did not at any point in time, carry out personal
vendetta or go after Buhari’s wife.
“That is the standard
practice in all democracies around the world. For instance, Michelle
Obama campaigned vigorously for her husband’s party during their last
Presidential election, but we are yet to see President Donald Trump move
against her. One thing is clear: No matter what they do to Mrs.
Jonathan, she will continue to stand by her husband, the father of her
children, even if it means paying the supreme price with her life.”
She
accused Magu of desecrating the image of the presidency, saying “it
would be good to bring him back to the path of sanity and reason”.
Jonathan’s wife said she is the most vilified first lady in the history of Nigeria.
She said it had got to the extent where all the “magnificent edifices in Abuja, Yenagoa or Port Harcourt” are presented to her.
“We
wish to place it on record that in the history of this country, no wife
of any President had been so far investigated in such flagrantly
vindictive and disgraceful manner, as has been the fate of Mrs.
Jonathan, in the hands of Magu’s EFCC,” the statement read.
“As a
tradition, every first lady in this country has had one pet project or
the other, with which they sought to intervene in the lives of the less
privileged. Mrs. Jonathan started her NGO in Bayelsa State 11 years ago
when her husband was the Governor of the State. With it, she has, over
the years, touched the lives of many Nigerians in different ways. It is
then surprising that while other First ladies and their pet projects
were left alone, it is only her activities and that of her NGOs that are
being subjected to indefinite probe and microscopic scrutiny by the
Buhari administration.
“In a method that clearly bears out the
axiom of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it, Magu’s EFCC had
maliciously linked Mrs. Jonathan to all kinds of fake possessions and
properties around the country, including the Local Content Office in
Yenagoa which is an arm of NNPC, Shoprite Complex, Nigerian Customs
Guest House and Park View Hotel, both in Port Harcourt, as well as the
residence of her neighbor who is a serving Senator. It has now come to a
point where all the magnificent edifices in Abuja, Yenagoa or Port
Harcourt are presented to the media as belonging to Mrs. Patience
Jonathan. Not done, they also accuse her of owning several plots of land
in many cities across the country, including places she has never
visited. The most astonishing of all is that her close relatives are
viciously being victimized, as their personal properties are also being
investigated.
“It is either the EFCC is now led by people who
cannot conduct proper investigations, or they are deliberately feeding
the public with false information, in line with their sinister script to
embarrass and browbeat the former first family.
“We wish to
remind President Muhammadu Buhari that what Magu and other agents of his
government are doing is tantamount to desecrating the hallowed and
dignified office of the President, and exposing it to public ridicule
before the rest of the world. As the elected President, Muhammadu Buhari
has become a father to all Nigerians. He should, therefore, resist the
snare of those vile advisers who portray him as a sectional and
vindictive leader, out to disgrace his predecessors.
“We implore
President Buhari to call Magu and his goons to order so he does not
further defile and do more damage to the dignity of the seat of the
nation’s President. The seat of the President of any country is sacred
and the occupant must be respected. As a former First Lady, Mrs.
Jonathan has been falsely called all manner of names, including drug
peddler, by Magu’s well-oiled propaganda machinery.”
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