2015: OBJ never met Jonathan on my behalf –Sule Lamido

Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State has described as untrue, speculation in some quarters that former President Oluse­gun Obasanjo, was ne­gotiating with President Goodluck Jonathan on his behalf, so that he could replace Vice Pres­ident Namadi Sambo, as the nation’s number two man come 2015.

Speaking with a select group of journalists in Du­tse, the Jigawa State capital, Lamido who said those be­hind the report, which was published in some newspa­pers were out to destroy his person, just to promote Sam­bo, further said that Obasan­jo did not meet Jonathan over anything.

“The story in question was planted and I know who did it. And the story was aimed at destroy­ing my reputation and in his folly; he thought he was pro­moting the Vice President because he said Obasanjo went there to meet President Jonathan.

“If you know Obj you will know he is an extreme­ly proud person. There are some things he would not do. So they said he went to President Jonathan and begged him to put down Na­madi and use me to replace him as a condition for sup­port.

“Then the writer brought in the killer line, by saying Jonathan is a good person saying ‘sorry sir, I can’t do it because Namadi has been a very loyal Vice President.’  The story presents President Jonathan as a fair person who has a lot of integrity and who also understands absolute loyalty. Isn’t that?”

“Good! Again, in the story, Jonathan was said to have further said ‘we are fighting corruption; if we put Sule Lamido, then I (Jonathan) would be undermining my fight against corruption be­cause he (Lamido) is still un­der investigation.’

“But then, these are is­sues that have not been de­termined by any competent court and they are drawing conclusions that I’m guilty. Up till now, nobody has said this is how much I have sto­len.

“The Director-General of SSS literarily shut down the Jigawa State Govern­ment for two weeks, picked up some bank managers that they must produce evidence against. They showed some pressmen figures; from this account to that account, but they are all tissues of lies. And the aim was just to en­sure I was undermined and smeared.

“So what that guy did was literally to destroy me. One, to promote his boss as a very loyal person; to me he is a wonderful Vice President; he is very loyal. I have noth­ing against Namadi. Nothing against him in my life!

“But you could see how they are using me – to pro­mote him. They want to de­stroy me, to promote him. And that explains why they planted what they did in the papers. And in any case, four days before the story was published, I got the story.

“The truth is that Obasan­jo did not meet Jonathan over anything. He has never met Jonathan over any arrange­ment about me. Nothing like that happened,” Lamido, said.