We have no plan to probe Obasanjo - Presidency insists

Idowu Samuel and Bola Badmus, Abuja - 08.01.2008

THE Presidency on Monday dismissed speculations about the probe of former President Olusegun Obasanjo by the government of President Umaru Yar’Adua, insisting that there was noting to suggest that such a probe was on.

The statement by the government was in reaction to media reports (Nigerian Tribune not included) that President Yar’Adua had been preventing all attempts by his government to probe Obasanjo in spite of petitions filed against him.

The Minister of Justice, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, made the position of the government known during his visit to the House of Representatives, declaring that the media reports credited to President Yar’Adua were falsehoods meant to endanger national security.

The Attorney General of the Federation said at no time did the idea of a probe of Obasanjo come up in the cabinet. He described the report of the purported probe of Obasanjo as sensational, stressing that there was never a time that the Federal Government stopped any investigation of anyone based on available petitions.

He said he was surprised to read in the newspapers that President Yar’Adua was blocking the plan by the government to probe his predecessor, wondering where the news to that effect emanated.

“The Federal Government has not stopped investigation against anybody. The reports which suggested that President Yar’Adua was blocking the plan to probe Obasanjo were sensational and intended to endanger national security.

“I was surprised to read that the president had stopped the investigation of the former president. The issue has never arisen. At no time did the government hold any discussion about the probe of Obasanjo

“The issue was not even discussed in the council; at least if anything of such was discussed in the government, I, as the chief law officer of the federation, would have known. How then could they (media) have said the president was going to stop the probe of the past administration when the president never did anything like that?”

Aondoakaa urged Nigerians to dismiss the report credited to President Yar’Adua which, according to him, was not based on fact. He said Yar’Adua was not a president who would interfere with legal process.

He said the president had sufficiently made his position known on the rule of law, adding that he (Yar’Adua) had said several times that he would always allow the rule of law to prevail in all matters.

The minister charged Nigerians who filed petitions against anyone in the country and had not got proper responses from the government to such petitions to come forward and challenge the government on why it had not taken action on them.