SAN FRANCISCO, November 12, (THEWILL) – All seem not to be well between former president Goodluck Jonathan and those who served in his cabinet and are currently under trial over the diversion of $2.1bn meant for arms procurement; 2015 polls cash and other financial frauds.
Some of the ex-ministers are said to be angry with Jonathan for allegedly abandoning them after they were arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, The Nation reports.
The former ministers, who are dissappointed that the ex-President neither assisted nor hired lawyers for them, want Jonathan to own up on the disbursement of the funds and open talks with President Muhammadu Buhari on plea bargain option.
However, the immediate past president is said to be shocked by revelations from the EFCC concerning some of the ex-ministers and wants the ongoing investigation and trial to run its full course.
The cold war has worsened to the point that when Jonathan met some of the former ministers, he did not ask them why they were arrested or commiserated with them over their ordeal with the EFCC.
An ex-ministers, who had always claimed that he “ran errands for Jonathan on the slush funds traced to him”, was said to be close to tears when Jonathan exchanged pleasantries with him without a mention of his ordeal in EFCC’s custody.
A reliable source told the newspaper: “Our camp has broken into two. The ex-President is on one side and the embattled ex-ministers is on the other.
“The cold war is a result of the ongoing arrest and trial of some former ministers and aides of Jonathan.
“Some of the ex-ministers and aides are angry that Jonathan was not owning up or rising in their defence over the allegations levelled against them.
“Some of them are feeling bad that Jonathan has neither hired lawyers to defend them nor met with President Muhammadu Buhari for plea bargain on some cases.
“A few others accuse him of not taking care of their families while they were in detention.”
Responding to a question, the source said: “I remember during one of our meetings, Governor Nyesom Wike spoke with anger on how some of us also betrayed Jonathan.
“The situation has degenerated to the extent that most of the former PDP governors do not visit Jonathan anymore.”
Meanwhile, a former minister, who spoke in confidence, said some of the embattled ministers were being unrealistic, adding that, “These ex-ministers cannot blame Jonathan for their travails at all.
“The ex-President was just hearing of some of these huge sums for the first time. Some of these funds were released under the guise of security votes without his approval.
“He has been devastated on the allegations against some ex-ministers.
“In some cases, withdrawals and disbursements from the treasury exceeded his approval.
“It will be extremely difficult for the ex-President to own up to everything.
“Even some ex-ministers from the North were alleged to have diverted some of these funds to either personal use or to mobilize their supporters against Jonathan during the 2015 poll.”
On efforts made for legal representation, the source said: “At a point, Jonathan assembled a team of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) to defend some of these ex-ministers and aides, but the legal team presented a bill running into billions of naira, which he said he could not afford. He had to abandon the plan.
“We have asked our colleagues to be considerate too. Jonathan is having his own share of the probe. Apart from his wife being investigated, his cousin and some of his associates are also on trial. This is enough an emotional burden to him.
“Despite the tightening of investigation noose around him, Jonathan came out recently to raise issues on the trial of Dasuki for the $2.1 billion arms scandal.”
Story by Ugonnabo Ngwu.
