Secret letter: Obasanjo denies writing Jonathan

Posted by admin Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Olusegun Obasanjo (1976-79, 99-07), Presidency Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has denied writing President Goodluck Jonathan to sack the executive secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and four other directors of the agency.

Obasanjo, who drove into the presidential wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos yesterday morning to board a private jet to an undisclosed destination, also threatened to sue The Nation newspapers for the report.

According to him, the management and staff of The Nation newspapers could best be described as insane, threatening to take the matter to court for justice.
The former president said he had not written Jonathan since his May 29 inauguration, adding that the last time he wrote the president was last year when he suggested those that merited national honours.

“The Nation newspaper and those who manage it, are they well? Are they sane? Because that must be a tissue of lies. I haven’t written to the president since his inauguration. I wrote to him last year on honours and awards for some Nigerians. So if any paper has written that, it is a figment of their imagination and I will refer it to my lawyer and they will hear from my lawyer,” he stated.

On the nerve-racking incessant bombings and general insecurity in the country, Obasanjo said: “Well, I don’t think anybody needs to be an oracle to make any pronouncement on security. It must be the concern of all of us. It is my own concern as a Nigerian because without security in the country, there isn’t much we can do. So, there is need for peace and security for development, progress to be made.”

The Nation newspapers had reported that there was palpable anxiety among some key strategists of President Goodluck Jonathan over a “curious secret” letter written to President Jonathan by Obasanjo.
The newspaper further claimed that the ex-president advised the president to remove the heads of some government agencies to avoid what he called unnecessary lobbying and distractions.

The newspaper went ahead to say that some of Jonathan’s strategists were querying the motive of Obasanjo’s letter because, in their view, he was seeking to replace some northerners who were heading the agencies with his candidates.
The Nation newspapers also said Obasanjo made his five demands in a September 16 letter to the president.

-Sunwp_posts