I did not collect any $200m bribe in Malabu Oil deal - Former President Jonathan

Goodluck Jonathan

Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan has refuted the claims that he had his own share from Malabu Oli deal, collecting the sum of $200m as bribe.

The former president’s refutation follows an American online media, Buzzfeed, which claimed in a report that Goodluck Jonathan received a sum of $200m in the 2011 notorious sale of the oil block OPL 245 from home-grown oil company Malabu to ENI and Shell Petroleum.

Ikechukwu Eze, who is an aid to Jonathan issued a statement on yesterday, April 11, denying the allegation and claiming that report was “false in its entirety.”

4The statement read thus:

“The allegations that former President Goodluck Jonathan received $200 million as proceeds from the Malabu Oil deal which were published on a gossip news site, Buzzfeed, and republished by a few other newspapers, is false in its entirety, and is one more in the series of fake news sponsored by those threatened by Dr. Jonathan’s continuously rising profile in the international community.

“Common sense should have shown the purveyors of this slander that the Malabu oil deal far predated the Jonathan regime and it would only make sense for him to be bribed if he had a time machine to go back in time to when the deal was struck.

“The report relied on hearsay evidence from a man of questionable character who provided no substance to back up his false claim.

“The man quoted by the report said he ‘assumed’ that Dr. Jonathan would be bribed. Since when has the assumption of a crook been enough to smear the reputation of a patriot and international statesman like Dr. Goodluck Jonathan?”