President Jonathan Won't Cover Corruption Cases, Says Okupe

BEVERLY HILLS, CA, March 31, (THEWILL) -  The Presidency on Sunday declared that President Goodluck Jonathan would not condone official corruption and won't cover corruption cases involving government officials.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr.

Doyin Okupe, made the declaration in a statement issued in Abuja.

"We wish to reiterate emphatically that President Goodluck Jonathan had never and will never condone any act of corruption no matter from which quarters such may come from.

"This clarification has become necessary as a result of a mischievous publication by a National Daily ( The Punch) which suggested falsely that my response to the planned probe by the  House of Representatives on the hiring of a private jet by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) implied that the President was encouraging corruption," Okupe said in the statement.

Okupe stated that "The true fact of the matter is that it is the House of Representatives that claimed to be in possession of certain documents relating to the leasing of private Jets for which they decided to institute a probe.

" He maintained that the Presidency is not  in possession of such papers, saying  neither has any petition relating to such issue been received by the Presidency.

"Therefore the Presidency is not in any position to investigate a matter that it has no fact or presentation on.

"It therefore becomes imperative that the Presidency awaits the outcome of the on-going investigation by the House of Representatives before it can undertake any reasonable action," he said.

According to Okupe,"The Front page story carried by the Punch of Saturday 29th March 2014 is absolutely detached and totally disconnected from my telephone interview with their correspondent.

The said publication is to put it mildly, patently misleading and unprofessional.

"It will be recalled that just recently, Mr President endorsed and directed that an alleged non-remittance of about $10 billion into the national coffers by the NNPC be subjected to a forensic audit by reputable international audit firms as suggested the Hon Minister of Finance.

"This is a clear indication that President Goodluck Jonathan upholds integrity, openness and accountability in the affairs of government and will never tolerate a cover up of any act of corruption by any person or agency of government.

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