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Dasukigate: Jonathan should face trial if… says Ndume

By Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, Abuja
11 March 2016   |   12:09 am
Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, yesterday said that former President Goodluck Jonathan should be made to face trial if after approving $2.1billion for purchase...
Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume

Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume

Senate Majority Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, yesterday said that former President Goodluck Jonathan should be made to face trial if after approving $2.1billion for purchase of arms , he gave another directive for the sharing of the money.

He also said that Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, should be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order in the state.

Ndume who spoke to reporters in Abuja noted that if Jonathan who approved $2.1 billion for the purchase of arms turned around to give a directive secretly that the money should be shared among his cronies, he should be prosecuted.

He said: “I do not want to dabble into that being one of the victims of insurgency. My house was taken over by insurgents and my town was declared a caliphate of the insurgents.

My Emir was killed while these people were smiling to the bank with the money that was meant to buy arms and ammunition.“It was for lack of ammunition that the Nigerian Armed Forces ran away.

“As far as I am concerned, these people are living on blood money, the blood of so many innocent citizens of this country particularly from the North East.
“I am not defending President Jonathan, but if he approved that this money be used for procurement of arms and law says he should be part of those that should be part of the accountability or those that should face justice, I think nobody should be spared.

“I really don’t want to make comment on that but anybody that is involved in that blood money should be held responsible.
“If the President approved that money in the name of buying arms while giving a directive that it should be shared among his cronies, then he should face the law.

“If anybody is supposed to buy arms and you gave them money to buy arms, as the president, after some time you should ask :`Where are the arms anyway?’.

Let me add and clearly that that is my position; if because of this or any other criminality Jonathan should face the law, he should; I did, I am facing the law.

“Nobody is supposed to be above the law, if Jonathan is a culprit he should face the law: if there is evidence that the former president should face the law then he should. After all, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.”

On the trial of the Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, by Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Ndume said the issue is being blown out of proportion, wondering why his own trial on allegation of being a Boko Haram sponsor is not getting the kind of attention Saraki’s trial by the CCT is.

“Do you know that I am still in court on a more serious issue?
“The President of the Senate is in court for assets declaration but I am in court for a more serious issue that I am alleged to be a sponsor of Boko Haram
“I have been in court for four years so why is it not an issue?

“Why are you making his own case a big deal? I think the Nigerian press trivializes things, dramatizes issues, concentrates on events and personalities instead of ideas: does that help us?”

On Rivers State, Ndume said Governor Wike should be held responsible for any breakdown of law and order since as in
the Chief Security Officer, Wike should on top of situation in his state.

The Senate, he said, has always “condemned what is happening severally, not just in Rivers but anything that is happening that has to do with loss of lives and criminality, we stand to condemn it.”

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