Jonathan says, Why I won’t say anything about the $2.1bn arms deal

Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan would rather keep mum about the ongoing investigations and arraignments into the billions of dollars earmarked to purchase arms but which allegedly ended up in private pockets, he has said.

Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd), Haliru Bello, Olisa Metuh and a host of others have been charged before the courts for sharing from the loot.

While some of the accused have named Jonathan as the man who authorized the disbursements in certain cases, the former Bayelsa Governor has said he wouldn’t want to interfere with matters before the courts by breaking his silence.

“My voice will certainly be heard at the appropriate time regarding the alleged arms funds mismanagement”, he wrote on his Twitter page.

“I would not want to interfere with the proceedings of the judicial system that my administration worked tirelessly to strengthen”, he added.

He also said should he want to discuss anything with President Buhari, he knows where to find him.

“If I have anything to discuss with my President, I will go to him and we will discuss. I have access to him”, he wrote.

Jonathan also touted his economic achievements as Nigeria’s leader.

“As President I worked hard to encourage Nigerians and non Nigerians to invest in our country. We worked hard to bring Nigeria up as the biggest economy in Africa”.

He said the insecurity in the north east of the country has to be tackled headlong to preserve the economic gains his administration left behind.

“Can I watch Nigeria slip into a theater of war with refugees spreading across Africa and beyond? Can I watch the investments of people we encouraged to invest here go down the drain, increasing unemployment of our youths?”

He added that his administration did its best to tackle the Boko Haram menace.

“Boko Haram has been in Nigeria since early 2000’s. My administration prosecuted the war against them. The current administration continues to fight them with the weapons we acquired and collectively I am confident we will eradicate them”, he said.