FFormer President Goodluck Jonathan has dismissed insinuations by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo that his government stole N150 billion which it shared two weeks to the conduct of the 2015 general elections. Osinbajo had, while speaking at the 7th Presidential Quarterly Business Forum for private sector stakeholders at the presidential villa on Monday, lamented that it was unfortunate that past Nigerians leaders had watched while public funds were being stolen. Osinbajo had told the gathering that: “In one single transaction a few weeks to the 2015 elections, sums of N100 billion, $289 million were just fretted away by a few.
“We saw from the presentation of the Minister of Finance that N14 billion was spent on agriculture in 2014, transportation N15 billion. So, the total spent on infrastructure in those three years were N153 billion and, in two weeks before the elections, N150 billion was essentially shared.
“So, if your total infrastructure spending is N150 billion and you can share N153 billion, that is completely incredible! That sort of thing doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world.”
Reacting to the accusations yesterday, Media Adviser to the former President, Reno Omokiri, challenged the vice president to show proof of such financial impropriety or remain silent. Omokiri insisted that former President Jonathan did not share N150 billion two weeks to the 2015 elections as being claimed by Vice President Osinbajo.
His words: “If Professor Osinbajo has proof that former President Jonathan did so, then we challenge him to publish his proof. He is a professor of law and ought to know that he who alleges must prove. “Again, it is a lie from the pit of hell that the Jonathan administration spent only N14 billion on agriculture and N153 billion on infrastructure in three years as alleged by the fallacious Osinbajo. “The Jonathan administration budgeted and spent over $10 billion on infrastructure in the five years between May 6, 2010 and May 29, 2015.
“The single most expensive and valuable project built in Nigeria in the last 20 years is the $1.8 billion Abuja-Kaduna 187 kilometres super-fast railway that enables Nigerians work in Abuja and live in Kaduna.
“This project was built and completed by the Jonathan administration. Is the Vice President aware of this?” Omokiri said. The former President said that Osinbajo has allowed himself only to be used by satanic forces in making such wild allegations. He said: “Again, my attention has been drawn to rehashed lies in the media by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, against the person of former President Jonathan.
“It is sad that the Vice President has again surrendered his lips to Satan to be used to spread slander and lies. Nigerians may recall that lying is the most consistent achievement of Professor Osinbajo’s almost three years as Vice President,” the statement noted. Jonathan also hit hard on the anti-corruption fight of the Buhari administra tion.
His words: “The truth is that Osinbajo continues to make these discredited comments because he is a man promoted above his competency.
“He was never a deputy governor or governor or an ambassador or a minister. His highest portfolio before becoming Vice President was that of a commissioner in Lagos State. “No wonder he was referred to as ‘ordinary commissioner’ by a prominent member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and leading figure in this current administration,” Omokiri added. The former President also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call Osinbajo to order.
“If President Buhari will not intervene and rein in his Vice President by call lying Pastor Osinbajo to order, I respectfully call on Pastor Enoch Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God to remember the biblical admonition in Revelations 21:8 that “all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” and step in to call Pastor Osinbajo to order,” he said.