Jonathan Did Not Spend N64bn On Independence Celebrations - Ex-Minister

Dr. Abubakar Sulaiman, Ex-minister under Jonathan administration, has denied reports coming from Mallam Nasir El-Rufai that Jonathan Government spent N64bn on Independence Day Celebrations in 5 years.

He questioned the source of El-Rufai claim of billions spent on Independence anniversary.

Abubakar clearly said, "We were taken aback by the recent comment reportedly credited to His Excellency, Governor Nasir El-Rufai, where he claimed that the immediate past President, His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s administration spent N64bn to cover the country’s independence anniversary spendings in five years.

"This tissue of lies was contained on his Facebook comment on Thursday. Ordinarily, we would have allowed this to go as just the ranting of a favour-seeker, but for the sake of ordinary Nigerians, who were abreast of happenings under the administration and also those who never did, we will like to set the record straight.

"It is important to correct the misinformation so that the unsuspecting public would not be misled. For the record, a breakdown of our anniversary spending between 2012 to 2014 amounted to N332.6m. We challenge the Office of the (Secretary to the) Government of the Federation to publish these details for the consumption of the public.

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"For the record, a breakdown of our spending for this event between 2012 and 2104 goes thus: 2012-N107.6m; 2013-N45m and 2014 had N180m. So, the question here is where did the billions as claimed by El-Rufai emanate from?

"Even though, those of 2010 and 2011 are not handy now, it should be known that they all fall within the same bracket as the one stated, except  that the 2010 anniversary was a golden one  when the country marked her 50 year of independence. But even then, not such outrageous sum was either budgeted or expended.

"Again, it is germane to explain the increase in the 2013 anniversary spending for the purpose of accountability. The National Honours Award Investiture was incorporated into the celebration, thus making it two events in one, hence the  N174,800,000.00 budget.

"We also want to add that the said award investiture could not hold in 2013 and the approved budget rolled over and was utilised to organise the investiture in 2014."