A
former Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, has responded to the allegation
made against him by the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC, Farida Waziri, that he encouraged corruption to thrive when
he was leading the country.
The Punch newspaper, on Sunday, reported that
Mrs. Waziri claimed that the former president dismissed her from her job at the
EFCC because she refused to “back down from the probe of one of the masterminds
of the fuel subsidy scam”.
The paper reported Mrs. Waziri as saying that
she was happy that her removal then ”has now helped her not to be associated
with the alleged grand corruption that took place under Jonathan’s
administration”.
“I’m only glad that those things didn’t happen
under my watch as the EFCC Chairman because it would have been too traumatic
for me.
“And that is why if I see President Jonathan
today, I will kneel down to thank him for the honour done me by removing me as
the EFCC Chairman at the time he did”, the Punch quoted Mrs. Waziri as saying.
The former president, Mr. Jonathan, took to
Twitter on Wednesday to challenge the former EFCC chairman over the remark
credited to her.
“If Farida is not telling lies she should
mention the person or company she was investigating and she was stopped”, Mr.
Jonathan said through his Twitter handle @GEJonathan.
“Let the @officialEFCC investigate”, Mr.
Jonathan said, adding that “Crime has no statute bar. If she can’t then she was
simply hired to attack me.”
Mr. Jonathan has been the butt of verbal
attacks since his loss in the 2015 presidential poll with many accusing him of
allowing corruption to thrive unimpeded while he held sway as president.
He has consistently defended his acts while in office by
saying critics chose to focus on his administration’s shortcomings rather than
its numerous achievements.
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