Former President Goodluck Jonathan has denied receiving money monthly from the controversial defunct pension fund.

Background:

• The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had declared chairman of the pension fund, Abdulrasheed Maina wanted for pension fraud.
• Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN) was said to have told a Senate ad-hoc committee that an “ex-president was taking N5bn monthly from the Pension Fund.”

Jonathan’s response:

Jonathan’s media adviser, Ikechukwu Eze on Saturday in Abuja said the claim was false.

He described it as “a blatant lie hurriedly cooked up to divert the attention of the general public from the raging ‘Mainagate’ and other embarrassing scandals.”

He added, “We believe that the story was concocted as part of the unfolding grand design (by the Buhari administration) to always dodge responsibility and blame every evil act taking place in the present dispensation on the past (Jonathan) administration.

“In the first place, we do not believe that Malami made such a claim because he is in a position to know that it is simply not true.”

Azeez