I didn't offer $5m bribe to Hamzat - Jonathan
- Goodluck Jonathan has claimed he didn't offer to pay bribe to Obafemi Hamzat in 2015
- Hamzat had claimed he was offered $5 million bribe by the former president during the 2015 general election
- The former president described Hamzat as a compulsive liar who shouldn't be offered such a prestigious post as the deputy governor of Lagos state
Former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, has denied the allegation that he offered $5 million bribe to the All Progressives Congress deputy governorship candidate of Lagos state, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, during the 2015 general elections.
In a statement issued on Sunday, December 30, by his spokesman, Ikechukwu Eze, the former president said he never met Hamzat during the 2015 elections, The Nation reports.
The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to a claim by the running mate to the All Progressives Congress, APC, governorship candidate in Lagos State, Mr. Obafemi Hamzat, that he rejected a $5million bribe from former president Goodluck Jonathan during the 2015 elections.
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“There is no better way to respond to this frivolous claim than to quickly dismiss it as a blatant lie apparently concocted by a wannabe politician desperate for votes in a campaign season.
“In the first place this character is an obscure individual who in 2015 had neither a recognizable name nor political clout. The point has to be clearly made that former President Jonathan has never met this man who was obviously not relevant in the national politics of 2015, let alone seek to offer him bribe.
“If the former President did not offer anyone bribe, having clearly acquitted himself as a man who does not believe in desperate politics, how on earth could he have sought to compromise an individual he didn’t even know and who obviously had no means of helping him politically?
“Assuming anybody had $5 million dollars to spend to better his political fortune as Mr. Hamzat claimed, why seek to waste it on man who was just a commissioner prior to 2015, and whose best outing so far is to function as a hand-picked running mate to a governorship candidate in the forthcoming 2019 elections?”
According to the ex-president, it is the action of people like Hamzat that conjures up in the minds of Nigerians the Biblical ‘Mark of the Beast’ to the effect that to be accepted in his party, one must be adept at telling lies.
Jonathan who described Hamzat as a compulsive liar, added that he shouldn't be respected or offered such a prestigious post as the deputy governor of Lagos state.
He said: “This definitely should not be the character and colour of a person who wants to become a governor or deputy governor of a state, lest we lose all hope in the expectation that we have all it takes to rescue our country from the bleak future that stares it in the face.
“What we know about liars is that they always leave a loose end which readily exposes them for who they are. Otherwise, Mr. Hamzat should have been bold enough to tell Nigerians where the money was presented to him and in whose presence the offer was made.
“We have always made the point that there should be a limit to these lies, if we must make progress as a democratic nation. Nigerians are not fools. It is high time those in positions of responsibility stopped running this country on lies."
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Legit.ng earlier reported that Hamzat said he rejected alleged bribe of $5 million from former president Jonathan during the electioneering campaign in 2015.
The disclosure was made on Friday, December 28, at the launch of Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat Advocates held at Fidimaye Hall, Oko-Oba, Abule-Egba area of Lagos state, The Nation reports.
Hamzat, who contested the governorship ticket of APC with the incumbent governor of the state, Akinwunmi Ambode, said he refused the alleged bribe because he was thinking about the future and did not want to ruin his reputation.
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Source: Legit.ng
