Goodluck Jonathan blasts Farida Waziri, calls her a liar

A former Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan, has responded to the allegation made against him by the former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Farida Waziri, that he encouraged corruption to thrive when he was leading the country.

It was earlier reported that, Mrs. Waziri claimed that the former president dismissed her from her job at the EFCC because she refused to “back down from the probe of one of the masterminds of the fuel subsidy scam”.

The paper reported Mrs. Waziri as saying that she was happy that her removal then ”has now helped her not to be associated with the alleged grand corruption that took place under Jonathan’s administration”.

“I’m only glad that those things didn’t happen under my watch as the EFCC Chairman because it would have been too traumatic for me.

“And that is why if I see President Jonathan today, I will kneel down to thank him for the honour done me by removing me as the EFCC Chairman at the time he did”, the Punch quoted Mrs. Waziri as saying.

The former president, Mr. Jonathan, took to Twitter on Wednesday to challenge the former EFCC chairman over the remark credited to her.

“If Farida is not telling lies she should mention the person or company she was investigating and she was stopped”, Mr. Jonathan said through his Twitter handle @GEJonathan.

“Let the @officialEFCC investigate”, Mr. Jonathan said, adding that “Crime has no statute bar. If she can’t then she was simply hired to attack me.”

Mr. Jonathan has been the butt of verbal attacks since his loss in the 2015 presidential poll with many accusing him of allowing corruption to thrive unimpeded while he held sway as president.

He has consistently defended his acts while in office by saying critics chose to focus on his administration’s shortcomings rather than its numerous achievements.