Former President, Goodluck Jonathan, has stated for the umpteenth time that he never spoke on the position of the Niger Delta region, over agitations for Biafra.
Jonathan, in a statement by his Media Adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, on Saturday, went on to disown an online publication which claimed that he spoke on the relationship between the South-East and Niger Delta regions.
The false report was said to have also claimed that Jonathan spoke on the position of the Niger Delta over agitations for Biafra, in a speech he allegedly presented recently in Texas, United States, US.
He however, described the report as false, adding that he could not have possibly presented the purported speech, because he neither travelled to the US, nor sent anybody to represent him at the unnamed event.
Eze stated that it was the second time in 3 years that Jonathan would be issuing a disclaimer on the false speech, and blamed the development on the efforts of some “unscrupulous people” to tarnish Jonathan’s highly esteemed image.
His words: “Our attention has been drawn to a fake story with the title: ‘Why Niger Deltans do not want to be part of Biafra’, currently circulating online, and purported to have been taken from a speech allegedly presented by former President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, at an unnamed event in Texas, the United States.
“The story which is being recycled on some online platforms, claimed that the former President allegedly spoke on the relationship between the people of the Niger Delta and South-East States, while addressing the broader issue of agitation for Biafra.
“We thought we had finally dealt with the issue of this falsehood with our timely and well publicised disclaimer, soon after the supposed speech first surfaced online in 2017. However, it beggars belief that the same jejune and disastrous effort at speech writing, hatched by some yet-to-be-identified shady character, is again being served to the social media public as a fresh dish.
“We want to clearly state, as we did in 2017, that there was no such event involving the former President, and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan will never present such a sloppy and hate-filled speech.”