Former president’s kinsman to Buhari: Prosecute Jonathan, wife for looting national treasury

NEDU MARK, Yenagoa

Frontline politician and a kinsman of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Chief Perekeme Kpodo, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to prosecute Jonathan and his wife, Dame Patience for looting the nation’s resources.

Chief Kpodo, the former Special Adviser on Security Matters to the former Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Timipre Sylva, who made the call at a news conference in Yenagoa said Jonathan and his wife and known associates should be prosecuted for the alleged looting of the resources of the country and other associated crimes.

He said: “We support the moves by Buhari for the prosecution of former President Goodluck Jonathan, his wife, Patience Jonathan and his known associates for the looting of the nation’s resources and associated crimes committed against the state.”

Kpodo, a factional chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and former Interim Chairman of the New Peoples Democratic Party in Bayelsa state said the defection of associates of the former president into the APC was an attempt by them to evade prosecution for their actions while in the PDP, stressing that acceptance of the defectors by the Tiwei Orunimighe-led executive committee was illegal.

Kpodo said that the APC’s stance against the corrupt associates of the last administration of Jonathan was well known insisting that they must be prosecuted accordingly.

Hear him: “As a decent state executive, we consider the attempt to make the APC a dumping ground unacceptable and vexatious.

“APC in the state will not allow the party to become a dumping ground for desperate looters and thieves in need of protection from prosecution.

“We call on President Muhammadu Buhari to order a detailed investigation into the acts of fraud and embezzlement by these defectors and their associates.

On the 2016 governorship election scheduled for Bayelsa state on December 5 this year, the factional leader said that all the aspiring defectors should obtain clearance at their wards before they come to the state level of the party.

Kpodo insisted that defectors must show clear record of performance from their parent party before official presentation to the loyalists and progressive supporters of the APC.

The ex security adviser to Chief Sylva said the APC would soon release a timetable of events of the party to receive its teeming supporters and defectors and the processes for primary elections.