Former Nigerian First Lady, Patience Jonathan, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to stop what she describes as a witch-hunt of her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Claiming that she was being victimised for supporting her husband’s failed re-election bid in 2015, Mrs. Jonathan said former President Goodluck Jonathan did not punish President Buhari’s wife, Aisha, for the role she played in the build-up to the 2011 election which the Buhari lost.
And that incumbent American President Donald Trump did not move against former First Lady Michelle Obama for campaigning vigorously against him during the last election.
Mrs. Jonathan, who is being investigated by the EFCC for allegations of fraud and money laundering running into billions of naira, therefore, asked Buhari to call the agency’s chairman, Ibrahim Magu, to order.
A statement by her spokesperson Belema Meshack-Hart accused Magu of trying to destroy her family.
“We believe that she is being systematically persecuted and punished because of her unflinching support for her husband during the 2015 elections,” the statement said.
It added: “One thing is clear: No matter what they do to Mrs. Jonathan, she will continue to stand by her husband, the father of her children, even if it means paying the supreme price with her life.”
Drawing reference from Nigeria and the United States of America, she said: “President Muhammadu Buhari should be reminded that his wife also supported him in all the elections he contested against her husband, former President Jonathan, but Dr. Jonathan did not at any point in time carry out personal vendetta or go after Buhari’s wife.
“That is the standard practice in all democracies around the world. For instance, Michelle Obama campaigned vigorously for her husband’s party during their last Presidential election, but we are yet to see President Donald Trump move against her. One thing is clear: No matter what they do to Mrs. Jonathan, she will continue to stand by her husband, the father of her children, even if it means paying the supreme price with her life.”
According to her, “in the history of this country, no wife of any President had been so far investigated in such flagrantly vindictive and disgraceful manner, as has been the fate of Mrs. Jonathan, in the hands of Magu’s EFCC.”
