Jonathan replies Lamido, says you can’t blackmail me

Former President Goodluck Jonathan has said that the allegation by former Governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Sule Lamido, that he traded Bayelsa State election to the All Progressives Congress (APC) to escape being investigated over Malabu oil deal was wrong.

Jonathan, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr Ikechukwu Eze, yesterday, said Mr Lamido’s comment did not reflect the position of the statesman he was supposed to be.

Lamido had claimed that Jonathan traded off the Bayelsa election in order to escape being investigated over the controversial Malabu oil deal, insisting that the leadership of the APC and the government blackmailed the former president into trading the poll for his freedom.

He said: “We really do not know why Mr. Lamido, chose to speak like he did, especially with such hostility, contempt and lies against me, 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.

“He actually came off the interview sounding like a sulking skunk, to whom logic or reason meant nothing. It didn’t matter to him that, as a wellrespected member of the society, he shouldn’t make such weighty claims against a former president if he was only guessing, like he admitted.

“Apparently seized by some inexplicable resentment, Lamido held on to the lie currently being pushed by few mischief-makers to the effect that former President Jonathan helped 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.

“In one breathe, Lamido alleged that Jonathan worked against his party ‘because he was very, very angry with (Governor) Dickson’, in another he claimed that 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’.

“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 true that Jonathan, who is a former deputy governor and governor of Bayelsa State, as well as former vice president and president of this country, is well loved and respected by his people. However, it will be tantamount to playing God for anybody to expect that the former president should command a vicelike grip on every Bayelsan in all the local government councils in his state.

“Rather than cast aspersions and throw shades because of preexisting 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,” the statement

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