Former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has accused
Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim
Magu, of plotting to destroy her family...
She has, therefore, petitioned
President Muhammadu Buhari to call the EFCC boss to order, stressing that
Magu’s disposition towards her former First Family, was portraying the
organization as an agency for revenge. EFCC boss Magu and Former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, has accused
Acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim
Magu, of plotting to destroy her family. She has, therefore, petitioned
President Muhammadu Buhari to call the EFCC boss to order, stressing that
Magu’s disposition towards her former First Family, was portraying the
organization as an agency for revenge.In
the statement signed by her media aide Belema Meshack-Hart, the former First lady
also accused Magu of bias and intimidation, lamenting that the EFCC boss had
been spreading barefaced falsehood and propaganda against her in the name of
investigations. Mrs Jonathan further claimed that Magu’s actions were
tantamount to “unjustified witch-hunt”, stressing that no other first lady had
faced such fate of brazen intimidation in the history of this country. The
statement reads in full: “We wish to bring to the attention of Nigerians, the
unjustified witch-hunt and media propaganda against the former First Lady, Dame
Patience Jonathan and her family by the agents of the acting chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu and his media
hirelings. “For almost three years, this agency of Government has beamed its searchlight
on her, her family members including siblings and parents, as well as her
Foundation and Non-Governmental Organisation; A. Aruera Reach Out Foundation,
and Women for Change and Development Initiative, in the name of investigating
their activities. However, we have since discovered that the real intention is
to disgrace, intimidate, dehumanize and ridicule her and her family, through
sheer cheap propaganda, sensational investigation and media trial that have
been going on for too long. “We wish to place it on record that in the history
of this country, no wife of any President had been so far investigated in such
flagrantly vindictive and disgraceful manner, as has been the fate of Mrs.
Jonathan, in the hands of Magu’s EFCC. “As a tradition, every First Lady in
this country has had one pet project or the other, with which they sought to
intervene in the lives of the less privileged. Mrs. Jonathan started her NGO in
Bayelsa State 11 years ago when her husband was the Governor of the State. With
it, she has, over the years, touched the lives of many Nigerians in different
ways. It is then surprising that while other First ladies and their pet
projects were left alone, it is only her activities and that of her NGOs that
are being subjected to indefinite probe and microscopic scrutiny by the Buhari
administration. “In a method that clearly bears out the axiom of giving a dog a
bad name in order to hang it, Magu’s EFCC had maliciously linked Mrs. Jonathan
to all kinds of fake possessions and properties around the country, including
the Local Content Office in Yenagoa which is an arm of NNPC, Shoprite Complex,
Nigerian Customs Guest House and Park View Hotel, both in Port Harcourt, as
well as the residence of her neighbor who is a serving Senator. It has now come
to a point where all the magnificent edifices in Abuja, Yenagoa or Port
Harcourt are presented to the media as belonging to Mrs. Patience Jonathan. Not
done, they also accuse her of owning several plots of land in many cities
across the country, including places she has never visited. The most
astonishing of all is that her close relatives are viciously being victimized,
as their personal properties are also being investigated. “It is either the
EFCC is now led by people who cannot conduct proper investigations, or they are
deliberately feeding the public with false information, in line with their
sinister script to embarrass and browbeat the former First Family. “We wish to
remind President Muhammadu Buhari that what Magu and other agents of his Government
are doing is tantamount to desecrating the hallowed and dignified office of the
President, and exposing it to public ridicule before the rest of the world. As
the elected President, Muhammadu Buhari has become a father to all Nigerians.
He should therefore resist the snare of those vile advisers who portray him as
a sectional and vindictive leader, out to disgrace his predecessors. “We
implore President Buhari to call Magu and his goons to order so he does not
further defile and do more damage to the dignity of the seat of the nation’s
President. The seat of the President of any country is sacred and the occupant
must be respected. As a former First Lady, Mrs. Jonathan has been falsely
called all manner of names, including drug peddler, by Magu’s well-oiled
propaganda machinery. “We believe that she is being systematically persecuted
and punished because of her unflinching support for her husband during the 2015
elections. President Buhari should be reminded that his wife also supported him
in all the elections he contested against her husband, former President
Jonathan, but Dr. Jonathan did not at any point in time, carry out personal
vendetta or go after Buhari’s wife. That is the standard practice in all
democracies around the world. For instance, Michelle Obama campaigned
vigorously for her husband’s party during their last Presidential election, but
we are yet to see President Donald Trump move against her. One thing is clear:
No matter what they do to Mrs. Jonathan, she will continue to stand by her
husband, the father of her children, even if it means paying the supreme price
with her life. “We are inclined to believe that there is a well orchestrated
plan to destroy her and her husband by Magu. The signs are ominous and obvious.
Her children had been harassed with her daughter’s house burgled. Her vehicles
have been attacked on the road four times, since 2015. Their house in Abuja was
vandalized allegedly by security agents sent by Government to secure it, and
the items stolen are yet to be recovered. We are inclined to remind President
Buhari that when he was attacked in Kaduna, the former first Lady’s husband,
Goodluck Jonathan, as the then President, immediately fortified his security to
ensure his safety. “There is no doubt that the grand plot to hound and
humiliate the Jonathan family by Magu, is afoot. But we are consoled by the
fact that duplicity and treachery have an expiry date. Today’s dance of victory
is only temporary. No one can deceive the masses forever. The truth will rise
up one day to trounce all the massive lies and propaganda that are today being
spread against Mrs. Jonathan and her family.”Patience Jonathan In
the statement signed by her media aide Belema Meshack-Hart, the former First lady
also accused Magu of bias and intimidation, lamenting that the EFCC boss had
been spreading barefaced falsehood and propaganda against her in the name of
investigations. Mrs Jonathan further claimed that Magu’s actions were
tantamount to “unjustified witch-hunt”, stressing that no other first lady had
faced such fate of brazen intimidation in the history of this country. The
statement reads in full: “We wish to bring to the attention of Nigerians, the
unjustified witch-hunt and media propaganda against the former First Lady, Dame
Patience Jonathan and her family by the agents of the acting chairman of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu and his media
hirelings. “For almost three years, this agency of Government has beamed its searchlight
on her, her family members including siblings and parents, as well as her
Foundation and Non-Governmental Organisation; A. Aruera Reach Out Foundation,
and Women for Change and Development Initiative, in the name of investigating
their activities. However, we have since discovered that the real intention is
to disgrace, intimidate, dehumanize and ridicule her and her family, through
sheer cheap propaganda, sensational investigation and media trial that have
been going on for too long. “We wish to place it on record that in the history
of this country, no wife of any President had been so far investigated in such
flagrantly vindictive and disgraceful manner, as has been the fate of Mrs.
Jonathan, in the hands of Magu’s EFCC. “As a tradition, every First Lady in
this country has had one pet project or the other, with which they sought to
intervene in the lives of the less privileged. Mrs. Jonathan started her NGO in
Bayelsa State 11 years ago when her husband was the Governor of the State. With
it, she has, over the years, touched the lives of many Nigerians in different
ways. It is then surprising that while other First ladies and their pet
projects were left alone, it is only her activities and that of her NGOs that
are being subjected to indefinite probe and microscopic scrutiny by the Buhari
administration. “In a method that clearly bears out the axiom of giving a dog a
bad name in order to hang it, Magu’s EFCC had maliciously linked Mrs. Jonathan
to all kinds of fake possessions and properties around the country, including
the Local Content Office in Yenagoa which is an arm of NNPC, Shoprite Complex,
Nigerian Customs Guest House and Park View Hotel, both in Port Harcourt, as
well as the residence of her neighbor who is a serving Senator. It has now come
to a point where all the magnificent edifices in Abuja, Yenagoa or Port
Harcourt are presented to the media as belonging to Mrs. Patience Jonathan. Not
done, they also accuse her of owning several plots of land in many cities
across the country, including places she has never visited. The most
astonishing of all is that her close relatives are viciously being victimized,
as their personal properties are also being investigated. “It is either the
EFCC is now led by people who cannot conduct proper investigations, or they are
deliberately feeding the public with false information, in line with their
sinister script to embarrass and browbeat the former First Family. “We wish to
remind President Muhammadu Buhari that what Magu and other agents of his Government
are doing is tantamount to desecrating the hallowed and dignified office of the
President, and exposing it to public ridicule before the rest of the world. As
the elected President, Muhammadu Buhari has become a father to all Nigerians.
He should therefore resist the snare of those vile advisers who portray him as
a sectional and vindictive leader, out to disgrace his predecessors. “We
implore President Buhari to call Magu and his goons to order so he does not
further defile and do more damage to the dignity of the seat of the nation’s
President. The seat of the President of any country is sacred and the occupant
must be respected. As a former First Lady, Mrs. Jonathan has been falsely
called all manner of names, including drug peddler, by Magu’s well-oiled
propaganda machinery. “We believe that she is being systematically persecuted
and punished because of her unflinching support for her husband during the 2015
elections. President Buhari should be reminded that his wife also supported him
in all the elections he contested against her husband, former President
Jonathan, but Dr. Jonathan did not at any point in time, carry out personal
vendetta or go after Buhari’s wife. That is the standard practice in all
democracies around the world. For instance, Michelle Obama campaigned
vigorously for her husband’s party during their last Presidential election, but
we are yet to see President Donald Trump move against her. One thing is clear:
No matter what they do to Mrs. Jonathan, she will continue to stand by her
husband, the father of her children, even if it means paying the supreme price
with her life. “We are inclined to believe that there is a well orchestrated
plan to destroy her and her husband by Magu. The signs are ominous and obvious.
Her children had been harassed with her daughter’s house burgled. Her vehicles
have been attacked on the road four times, since 2015. Their house in Abuja was
vandalized allegedly by security agents sent by Government to secure it, and
the items stolen are yet to be recovered. We are inclined to remind President
Buhari that when he was attacked in Kaduna, the former first Lady’s husband,
Goodluck Jonathan, as the then President, immediately fortified his security to
ensure his safety. “There is no doubt that the grand plot to hound and
humiliate the Jonathan family by Magu, is afoot. But we are consoled by the
fact that duplicity and treachery have an expiry date. Today’s dance of victory
is only temporary. No one can deceive the masses forever. The truth will rise
up one day to trounce all the massive lies and propaganda that are today being
spread against Mrs. Jonathan and her family.”
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