CORRUPTION - Don’t Limit Your Probe to My Regime – President Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, said that if the incoming president, Muhammadu Buhari decides to probe upon assumption of office, he should not single out his (Jonathan) administration. He asked Buhari to extend it to other administrations before him. Jonathan argued that limiting the probe to only his administration would amount to a witch hunt.

In a speech at the valedictory session of the Federal Executive Council, ahead of his handing over to Buhari tomorrow, President Jonathan said his comments followed calls from different quarters for his administration to be investigated, even as he scored his administration high despite the difficult operating environment that prevailed during his tenure. He attributed the on-going fuel scarcity and strike by some unions in the oil sector to acts of sabotage by some persons who are bent on bringing his administration to its knees “even with just few days” to go.

He said: “Some people are calling for the probe of this government and I agree. In Nigeria, there are a lot of things that will be probed. They ever said all the debts owed by states and this nation from 1960 up to this time are owed by the Jonathan administration.

“I believe that anybody calling for probe must also ensure that these probes are extended beyond the Jonathan administration, otherwise, to me, it will be a witch-hunt. If you are very sincere you will agree that it is 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 judgment debts; if we aggregate all of them it is almost $1 billion. But how did we come to this kind of huge judgment debts? These issues should be probed. Do we follow our laws when we allocate our oil wells, oil fields, and marginal wells? All these should be probed and I believe all these and many more areas should be looked at,” he said.

President Jonathan praised his administration for its achievements in various sectors of the economy, noting that even though he operated under very difficult circumstances, he was very proud of his accomplishments.

He said that though the Boko Haram menace predated his administration, his election in 2011 made the sect more vicious and dastardly. (Vanguard)