Ex President Goodluck \u00a0Jonathan has denied claims by the Federal Government 13-man committee, probing arms procurement that his administration \u00a0 awarded \u00a0 arms contract worth a staggering $2Billion.<\/p>\n
According to him, \u00a0the claims by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration were false and unsubstantiated.<\/p>\n
I did not award any $2 billion contract for procurement of weapons\u201d Where did the money come from?\u201d and repeating emphatically that \u201cI did not award a contract of $2billion for procurement of weapons\u201d.<\/p>\n
The former president spoke \u00a0at an event titled: \u201cPresidential elections and democratic consolidation in Africa: Case studies on Nigeria and Tanzania, co-hosted by National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)<\/p>\n
\u00a0He siad \u00a0\u201cSometimes, I feel sad when people mention these figures..When the president (Buhari) paid official visit to the US, there were some figures that were mentioned that I don\u2019t believe.\u201d<\/p>\n
He drew attention to figures like the $150billion alleged to have been stolen in previous Nigerian administrations, but Jonathan scoffed at the probability of \u201c$150 billion American money\u201d being missing and \u201cAmericans will not know where it is,\u201d adding that at any rate President Buhari did not accuse his administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t say my government, he said previous administrations\u2026 \u201c$150 billion is not 150 billion Naira,\u201d he stated, suggesting, \u201cPeople play politics with very serious issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former president was equally dismissive of people who alleged that the sum of $59.8 million was misappropriated within a 12-month period while he was in office.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Nigeria, if you lose $59.8 million in a year, federal and state governments will not pay salaries,\u201d he said, adding that there is no way Nigerian budget can accommodate such a loss without the country coming to a standstill.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course we brought international audit teams, forensic auditors and they didn\u2019t see that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ex President Goodluck \u00a0Jonathan has denied claims by the Federal Government 13-man committee, probing arms procurement that his administration \u00a0 awarded \u00a0 arms contract worth a staggering $2Billion. According to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n