Malabu deal: I didn’t receive $200 million from anyone-Jonathan

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has denied allegations of having received $200 million kickback from the OPL 245 Malabu Oil deal.In a statement by his media adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, the allegation was “false in its entirety,” while adding that it was a “series of fake news” sponsored by those threatened by Jonathan’s “continuously rising profile in the international community.”He said the man quoted by the report said he “assumed’ that Jonathan would be bribed.”Eze described the claim that Jonathan and former Minister of Petroleum, Dan Etete had known each other for years when Jonathan served as a tutor to Etete’s children while he was a minister as “clearly ridiculoius”.“In the first place, the former President couldn’t have been a ‘tutor’ to Etete’s children without first establishing contact with the family. This is because Jonathan met Etete who served as the Petroleum Minister in Gen. Abacha’s military regime for the first time under the succeeding civilian administration, when he was already the deputy Governor of Bayelsa State. Even then, the fact remains that ex-President Jonathan has never met any of Etete’s children”, the spokesman said.“It is instructive that this same old fable apparently intended to rubbish Jonathan’s name locally and internationally, is being recycled with more lies added to garnish the narrative, at a time the ex-President is making efforts to resolve the issues in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).“While in office and now that he is out of office, former President Jonathan did not open and does not own any bank account, aircraft or real estate outside Nigeria. Anyone with contrary information is challenged to publicly publish same.”The former president appealed to the media to report facts rather than innuendo and gossip. “Dr. Jonathan cannot stop criminals from ‘assuming’, but he can and he will stop them from getting away with blatant lies”, Eze said.A source reveals that a panel constituted by the Lower House is considering summoning the former president over the award Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245.“I can confirm that the former president is now on our radar following new details that were uncovered in latest news reports about the Malabu scandal,” the source said.However, some members of the House said yesterday that there was no move to summon the former president over the issue.Minority Leader, Leo Ogor, told journalists that no such issue was ever discussed either on the floor of the House at the leadership level.He said as a former president, a committee of the House could not just wake up and say it would summon Jonathan because there are certain processes to be followed.Ogor who chaired an ad-hoc panel that probbed the Malabu deal during the 7th Assembly said there was no time that Jonathan was indicted in the matter.“I’m not aware of plans to summon the former president. If there is anything to that effect, it will probably be a bit out of place except he/she is not aware of the whole Malabu deal and how Malabu came about.“So, I believe that the publication must be something imaginary. But whatever it is, I believe there is nothing impossible. Let’s watch and see how it goes, and we will be able to address them,” Ogor said.