Bribe Allegations Against Me Are Recycled Falsehood, Says President Jonathan

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has declared that the bribery allegations against him by the APC government arerecycled falsehood.

In a statement issued by Ikechukwu Eze, media adviser to Jonathan, Eze said the former president did not ask for or receive any bribe in regards to the controversial OPL 245 oil deal adding that the allegations were expected after his election duty in South Africa.

Hestated that documents detailing transactions and decisions of the federal government on the OPL 245 oil block during Jonathan’s administration are accessible in relevant government offices.

APC government had accused Jonathan and his then Minister of Petroleum, Diezani Alison Madueke, of accepting bribes and breaking the country’s laws to broker a $1.3 billion oil deal eight years ago.

The deal, in which Anglo-Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell and Italian peer Eni jointly acquired the rights to the OPL 245 offshore oilfield, has spawned legal cases spanning several countries.

In papers advancing a London commercial court suit against Shell and Eni, lawyers for the Nigerian government said Jonathan and Diezani conspired to “receive bribes and make a secret profit”, keeping the government from getting what it was owed from the deal.

“Bribes were paid,” the filing, reviewed by Reuters, states. It says “the receipt of those bribes and the participation in the scheme of said officials was in breach of their fiduciary duties and Nigerian criminal law.”

Reacting, Eze said: “Our attention has been drawn to a media report which alleged that lawyers to the Federal Government had, in a London court filing, accused former President Goodluck Jonathan of accepting bribes in order “to broker a $1.3 billion oil deal eight years ago”.

“We will quickly dismiss this report as a recycled falsehood that is blatantly dishonest, cheap, and predictable,” Eze said.

“Although there is nothing new in this fabricated bribery claim which we had severally debunked in the past, we will continue to restate the following facts:

“Former President Goodluck Jonathan did not ask for or collect any bribe, neither has he been charged for asking or collecting bribes, neither will he ever be charged with asking for or collecting bribes, because such never happened.

“That this particular dispute predated the Jonathan administration and survives it.

“That former President Jonathan is 61 years old and throughout his life has never opened an account, nor owned property outside Nigeria. Perhaps those behind this latest propaganda would be bold enough to make the same deposition?

“In fact, we expected something like this ever since it was announced that former President Jonathan would lead the Election Observation Mission of the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa to South Africa’s national and provincial elections.

“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 from ENI by the Italian authorities or any other law enforcement body the world over.”