Jonathan: I’m Not Planning to Nominate Minister for Bayelsa

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

President Goodluck Jonathan, has denied any involvement in the struggle to appoint a minister to represent Bayelsa State in the President Bola Tinubu cabinet, saying assertions to the contrary were from his political enemies from the past in the state.

Tuesday in Yenogoa,  Chairman of the Elders’ Council of the APC, Chief Michael Adomokeme, wondered why the former president was angling to produce a minister after actively and openly supporting the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, during the 2023 presidential election.”

But Jonathan in a statement by his Special Assistant, Ikechukwu Eze, said, his political enemies had not given up in their past activities to dent his character,

“We would have ordinarily ignored the falsehood, given that neither the authors, who are shadowy characters nor their nebulous organisation, Bayelsa APC Elders Council, which is unknown to the structure of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, command any credibility.

“However, we have continued to receive calls from friends and well-wishers, who are concerned that some innocent Nigerians might be misled by the duplicitous fabrication; hence this rebuttal.

“We state without equivocation that the publication is false, malicious, preposterous and unnecessary. It is instructive that the authors of the hackery who are quick to spin such unfounded narrative could neither provide any clarification on the nature of the alleged consultations nor name the beneficiary of the envisaged nomination.

“We can only guess that a handful of faltering low profile politicians might have wrongly misinterpreted Jonathan’s recent visit to the Presidential Villa in Abuja, even when the former President, who is ECOWAS mediator in Mali and Chairman of ECOWAS Council of the Wise, clearly explained that he had gone to brief President Bola Tinubu, who has just been elected as the Chairman of the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government, on the recent developments in the sub-region.”

Jonathan said the publication was simply a tactless ramble by some benighted politicians seeking to draw attention to their hopeless plight by raising malicious allegations against him.