Probe Other Past Governments Too - Jonathan To Buhari

8 years ago

Probe Other Past Governments Too - Jonathan To Buhari

In an apparent reference to repeated calls for the probe of his government, President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday requested the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, not to limit any probe he may intend to carry out, to his administration.

Speaking at the valedictory session to mark the last meeting of the outgoing Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Jonathan declared that any probe by Buhari must go beyond his government or it would amount to nothing but a witch-hunt.

“People are calling for probe and this should not be limited to my government. Other governments before me must also be probed; otherwise, it will be witch-hunting,” he stated.

Jonathan’s living predecessors include Buhari’s former military colleagues, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Generals Abdulsalmi Abubakar and Ibrahim Babangida.

He also reminded those calling for a probe of his administration to also call for a probe into the manner oil wells and fields were allocated in the past.

Former defence minister, Gen T.Y. Danjuma had in Takum, Plateau State, last weekend called on the incoming administration to probe how the country ran into a debt profile of over $60billion.

Jonathan further clarified that he had yet to dissolve the present cabinet since all his ministers would attend the inauguration dinner today in their official capacity.

At the valedictory FEC meeting that lasted for about five hours, all the ministers present took turns to speak on their ministries’
achievements and also showered praises on the outgoing president for giving them the privilege to serve their fatherland.

Jonathan, who spoke last, noted that if Buhari must go about the much talked probe, he must be ready to probe many things including debts owed by past administrations since 1960.

He said, “Some people are even calling for the probe of this government; I agree. In Nigeria there are a number of things that we will probe, very many things; even debts owed by states and this nation from 1960 up to this time, they say it is Jonathan’s administration that is owing all the debts.

“I believe that anybody calling for probe must ensure that these probes are extended beyond the Jonathan administration; otherwise, to me, it will be witch hunting. If you are very sincere then, it’s not just Jonathan’s administration that should be probed.

“A number of things have gone wrong and we have done our best to fix them. The attorney-general is aware of massive judgement debts; if we aggregate all of them, it is almost going to $1 billion. How did we come to this kind of huge judgement debts?

“These issues should be probed. How do you allocate our oil wells, oil fields, marginal wells and all that? Do we follow our laws? All these should be probed. And I believe all these and many more areas should be looked at.”

The outgoing president noted that his government operated under an extremely difficult situation, saying certain persons who were bent on bringing down his government hoodwinked the Nigerian public with certain actions that crippled economic activities in the country.
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