Former President Goodluck Jonathan has met with some former members of his cabinet, where he told them he was “not a thief in office as being portrayed”.
According to The Nation, the former president revealed to his former adies that he advised Buhari during their last meeting at the Aso Villa against subjecting his person and former cabinet members to “media trial” on alleged corruption and also asked why the Election Petition Tribunals in Rivers and Akwa Ibom should be allowed to work unhindered.
Jonathan condemned what he described as the involvement of the Department of State Security Service (DSS) on election-related matters in the two South-southern states.
A source at the meeting told the national daily that about 15 former ministers (including two who were recalled from London) and some former security chiefs attended. One of the former media aides in the Presidency attended the “strictly private” session to put issues in the correct perspective at the right time.
The session was “a frank and fact-finding” against the backdrop of plans by the Buhari administration to probe Jonathan’s tenure, the source said.
Another source told the newspaper that Jonathan asked all his former ministers to “brace for the probe ahead and keep their records intact to reply Buhari’s administration on issues being raised.
“The ex-ministers unanimously agreed that there were better sides of Jonathan’s administration than being painted as a tenure of graft.
“Some of the ex-ministers lamented that the Permanent Secretaries proving to Buhari as holier-than-thou were part of the Jonathan administration and they even made input into the handover notes,” it stated.
The newspaper also quoted a third source which stated that the meeting resolved to reach out to the public in the same equal weight the allegations of corruption will be released by the Buhari administration.
