Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has said the Federal Government is not persecuting former President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife Patience. Reacting to reports of $15 million found in an account owned by Patience Jonathan, Lai Mohammed said it will be wrong for anyone to claim that the Federal government was probing the former first family as it was Patience Jonathan herself who came out to claim the foreign currency found in a strange account operated by a former aide of Jonathan.
He said this in an interview with journalists in Oro, Kwara State yesterday tuesday September 13th.
“If you look at the history of Mrs. Patience Jonathan’s issue, I think she was the one that came out to claim that the money found in the accounts of one of the aides to the former President, her husband, belonged to her. It was not the EFCC that claimed so. She claimed that the money that the guy was being prosecuted for belonged to her. It was only then they later found an extra $5m in another account. It is not as if anybody has gone out to probe Mrs. Jonathan directly or indirectly. Rather Mrs. Jonathan was the one that said ‘that money for which you are accusing Mr. X actually belongs to me. So, you cannot start talking of prosecution or persecution”he said
