Former President Goodluck Jonathan will not appear as a witness for his former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki who is on trial for allegedly stealing $2.1bn arms fund, Punch reports.
It was gathered that Jonathan was yet to indicate interest in appearing before the court.
There had been calls for the former President to appear in court as a witness after he claimed that it was not possible for Dasuki to have stolen such amount during his administration.
An associate of the former President said there was no reason for him to appear before the court because he is not a party to the suit.
He said, “Why should he appear? He (Jonathan) is not a party to the suit and we are aware that a few persons are desperate to humiliate our former President by dragging him into all this.
“Their aim is to create tension and destabilise us. We will not give enemies of Nigeria the pleasure of destroying our nation.”
One of Jonathan’s kinsmen, Chief Benson Agadaga said it was unreasonable to request that the former President appear in court.
Agadaga said Jonathan gave the approval for the disbursement of tr funds to the appropriate quarters.
He said, “The security agencies should have investigated everything, they know what is there. To ask him (Jonathan) to go and testify is an insult. How many other former Presidents have testified in the court? We have yet to see that.
“The approval was given for the money to be disbursed and it was disbursed the way it was wanted. But if the money was disbursed other than what was approved, the records are there to show. I am sure all these things have been documented. The documents should speak for themselves.
“Asking him to go to court to testify is an insult. They are demoralising him. Have they asked former President Shehu Shagari to go to court? Has former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, gone to court any day? Have former Military President Ibrahim Babangida, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and others gone to court?
“If you want to fight corruption, should it be with Jonathan alone? Is Jonathan the originator of corruption in Nigeria? Corruption has been in Nigeria before now. And if people are to be probed, like what happened in Ghana, all the former Heads of State should be probed. If they want to probe corruption, it should start from Shagari’s time. Nobody is an angel.”
Thde statement dat jonathan can’t
testify is rubbish. why was he try 2 defend dasuki? It’s an indication dat jonathan knew much about d stole fund.Why was he approved such amount 4? is dat d role many NSA played wt other head of states? let him go there if jonathan truly believed that dasuki was not alone in d pool or he shd keep off. this is not d matter of how many insulting anybody.dis war against corruptn must start somewhere.