JONATHAN: SANDERS' WIKILEAKS ACCOUNTS 'SOUPED UP VERSION'

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday described the word-to-word accounts of his meetings with the then United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Ms. Robin Renee Sanders in the leaked United States Secret diplomatic cable as 'largely inaccurate and unfair account.'

He said the report was 'a souped up version' devoid of the standard conversation that took place in such a high profile meetings.

The secret US cable released by Wikileaks had revealed Sanders's February 26 accounts of her meeting with Jonathan when he was acting president at the Vice President's official residence, Aguda House, in Abuja during which they reviewed the intrigues that surrounded the return of the late President Umaru Musa Yar'adua to the country from Saudi Arabia and how Jonathan intended to handle the sticky situation at that time.

The report also revealed how Jonathan expressed doubts about whether he would stand in the 2011 presidential elections and was quoted as describing himself as one 'lacking in administrative experience.'

'I was not chosen to be Vice President because I had good political experience,' he said. 'I did not. There were a lot more qualified people around to be Vice President, but that does not mean I am not my own man,' Jonathan was quoted to have said in the report.'

But in a statement yesterday by his spokesman Ima Niboro, Jonathan denied making that statement saying that  he cannot be described as an inexperience administrator considering his credentials as a Ph.D holder, lecturer for 10 years, an assistant director , deputy governor, an acting governor, a governor, a vice president, and then acting president.

It said the accounts of meetings between Jonathan and US diplomats are essentially third party narratives and inaccurate.