Former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has reacted to report that the Federal Government has requested his account statements and that of his wife, Patience, from banks in the United States.
Nigeria is requesting “all documents concerning any transactions to, from, or for the benefit” of Jonathan and his wife between 2009 and the present day.
Bloomberg had reported that the statement of accounts of Jonathan, his wife; former Ministers of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke and Rilwanu Lukman, were being demanded from 10 US banks by the Federal Government.
Court documents quote Abubakar Malami, the attorney-general of the federation, as saying information contained in the document will help an ongoing investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to know individuals in the Process & Industrial Developments Ltd gas deal.
A statement issued behalf by Jonathan’s spokesman, Ikechukwu Eze said the former President’s attention had been drawn to international media reports to the effect that the Federal Government of Nigeria had subpoenaed bank records for him and his wife, Dame Patience Jonathan in the United States of America.
“We aver that the Federal Government of Nigeria did not contact Dr. Jonathan or his wife before issuing these subpoenas. If they had, we would have advised them of the fact that you cannot subpoena what does not exist.
“We also remind the public that on March 5, 2014, during the swearing in of new ministers, then President Jonathan said “I am loyal to Nigeria’s economy. I don’t have accounts or property abroad.”
“We are confident in stating that between that time and now, nothing has changed with regards to Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. He has no accounts in the United States of America, and encourages US authorities to cooperate fully with the Federal Government of Nigeria’s subpoena,” the statement said.
According to the statement, “we would also like to state that during his tenure as President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan extended every courtesy to former Presidents and Heads of state, because he believed and still believes that promoting, projecting and protecting Nigeria’s sovereignty and image is the paramount duty of her government, because it is not possible to belittle Nigerians without belittling Nigeria.
“Finally, we state that the signing of the P&ID contracts preceded the Jonathan administration, and that that government gave appropriate counsel to the incoming government in the handover notes of 2015, which advice, if carried out, would have prevented the current unfortunate circumstances.”
