‘They want to destroy me to promote Jonathan’ – Gov Lamido

Jigawa State Governor, Sule Lamido has decried the attempt by some unscrupulous persons to tarnish his character by publishing false stories against him that paint him black, whilst speaking glowingly of the Presidency. Lamido drew attention to a story he claimed to be fabricated and published in the media which stated that former President Olusegun Obasanjo lobbied President Jonathan to remove Architect Namadi Sambo as Vice President and replace him with Lamido ahead of the 2015 poll. Lamido narrated, “the story in question was planted and I know who did it. And the story was aimed at destroying my reputation and in his folly; he thought he was promoting the Vice President because he said Obasanjo went there to meet President Jonathan. “If you know Obj you will know he is an extremely proud person. There are some things he would not do. So they said he went to President Jonathan and begged him to put down Namadi and use me to replace him as a condition for sup­ port. “Then the writer brought in the killer line, by saying Jonathan is a good person saying ‘sorry sir, I can’t do it because Namadi has been a very loyal Vice President.’ The story presents President Jonathan as a fair person who has a lot of integrity and who also understands absolute loyalty. Isn’t that? “Good! Again, in the story, Jonathan was said to have further said ‘we are fighting corruption; if we put Sule Lamido, then I (Jonathan) would be undermining my fight against corruption because he (Lamido) is still under investigation.’ “But then, these are issues that have not been determined by any competent court and they are drawing conclusions that I’m guilty. Up till now, nobody has said this is how much I have stolen. “The Director-General of SSS literarily shut down the Jigawa State Government for two weeks, picked up some bank managers that they must produce evidence against. They showed some pressmen figures; from this account to that account, but they are all tissues of lies. And the aim was just to ensure I was undermined and smeared. “So what that guy did was literally to destroy me. One, to promote his boss as a very loyal person; to me he is a wonderful Vice President; he is very loyal. I have nothing against Namadi. Nothing against him in my life! “But you could see how they are using me – to promote him. They want to destroy me, to promote him. And that explains why they planted what they did in the papers. And in any case, four days before the story was published, I got the story. “The truth is that Obasanjo did not meet Jonathan over anything. He has never met Jonathan over any arrangement about me. Nothing like that happened,” Lamido, said.