Buhari Denies Withholding Jonathan's Entitlements

The Presidency has dis­missed allegations that it was withholding the allowances of former President Goodluck Jona­than.
Mallam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant (Media & Publicity) to Pres­ident Muhammadu Buhari, refuted the allegations by some protesting Ijaw youths who asserted that the gov­ernment had withheld the allowances of former Presi­dent Goodluck and the sal­aries of his security details.
Indeed, hundreds of ag­grieved Ijaw youths had on Thursday taken to the streets of Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, to protest the alleged ill-treatment of Jonathan and his family by the Buhari ad­ministration.

They claimed that apart from using the Econom­ic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to harass the former First Lady, Dame Patience Jon­athan, and freeze her ac­counts, the Federal Govern­ment had gone ahead to stop the allowances of the former president.
The spokes­man of the President, Malam Garba Shehu, has said: “There is no truth in the allegation. All his outstanding allow­ances have been paid except that of the third quarter of the year; and it does not af­fect him alone.
“Other past heads of state and presidents have also not been paid for the third quarter. So, there is noth­ing like his allowances be­ing stopped. All other out­standing allowances have been paid.
“The Federal Ministry of Finance has already issued the payment advice to the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federa­tion (SGF) and as cash in­flow permits, he and others will be paid accordingly.”
The protesting Ijaw youths had disrupted traf­fic flow along the Sani Aba­cha Expressway in Yenagoa on the alleged ordeal of the Jonathans.
During the peaceful pro­test, the youths expressed their anger over the govern­ment’s alleged disrespect for Jonathan by freezing the ac­counts of his wife and with­holding his allowances.
They alleged that the gov­ernment was starving his se­curity personnel by refusing to pay their salaries.
The protesters were drawn from the nine states of the Niger Delta region led by the President of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) World­wide, Mr. Udengs Eradiri.
They chanted Ijaw soli­darity songs and displayed the ethnic group’s flags and placards with inscriptions such as: “Leave Patience Jon­athan alone”; “NLNG must be bought by Bonny people”; “If you must probe, all First Ladies must be probed”; “We need projects not soldiers”; “Defreeze Jonathan’s ac­count”, among others.
Eradiri said: “This coun­try has produced many pres­idents but the only one from the Niger Delta is constantly harassed by the machinery of state, especially the EFCC.
“We want to call on the President to please respect former President Jonathan, at least for the fact that he brought peace to this coun­try, handed over power peacefully to him. He didn’t go to court. He allowed him to run this country; Presi­dent Buhari should focus on leadership and stop vilifying the former first family.”
“We appeal to Buhari to respect Jonathan the way he respects other past pres­idents. They have frozen his accounts; they are not paying his allowances. Even the security agents around him do not get what is due them. Why is the Presiden­cy victimising Goodluck Jonathan?”
Eradiri also told Pres­ident Buhari that the pro­cess of negotiation between the Federal Government and the Niger Delta region was faulty from the begin­ning, saying the talks would crumble unless the Presi­dent sat on the same table with leaders of various eth­nic nationalities in the re­gion.

source: www.authorityngr.com