The former President Dr.
Goodluck Jonathan warned government functionaries to desist from abusing the
immunity enjoyed by them by destroying history and trading lies just to earn
cheap popularity or curry favour from certain quarters.`
Immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has denied claims by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State that his administration spent N64 billion to organize Nigeria’s independence celebrations for three years.
Immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has denied claims by Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State that his administration spent N64 billion to organize Nigeria’s independence celebrations for three years.
According to the governor,
Jonathan spent N13 billion in 2011, N15 billion in 2012 and N14 billion in 2013
and N22 billion in 2011, bringing the total to N64 billion.
However, Jonathan denied
the claim, saying only N332.6 million was spent during the three-year period
and chided el-Rufai for deliberately lying to confuse the public and give his
administration a bad name.
Jonathan, who responded to
the allegation yesterday, described the huge figure as figment of el-Rufai’s
imagination and a fabricated lie by a favour-seeker.
In a statement in Abuja,
through his former Minister of National Planning, Minister/Deputy Chairman,
National Planning Commission, Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, Jonathan said: “For the
record, a breakdown of our anniversary spending between 2012 to 2014 amounted
to N332.6 million.
“We challenge the Office of
the Government of the Federation to publish these details for the consumption
of the public.
“A breakdown of our
spending for this event between 2012 and 2104 goes thus: 2012, N107.6 million;
2013, N45 million and 2014, 180 million. So, the question here is where did the
billions, as claimed by el-Rufai, emanate from?”
The former President said though
he did not have the figures for 2010 and 2011, expenditure for the two years
fell within the threshold of what was spent in the last three years and there
was no attempt to overspend the country’s resources as claimed by the governor.
He said his administration
never budgeted nor spent the outrageous amount alleged by el-Rufai and pointed
out that the increment in the 2010 celebration budget was due to the fact that
the nation celebrated its golden anniversary that year.
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