Patience Jonathan reacts to alleged N3b bribe from NNDC

First Lady Patience Jonathan has debunked media report alleging that she was paid N3 billion by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) for facilitating the 2015 Budget of the commission.

According to the report, Mrs Jonathan collaborated with former Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike in a number of schemes that enable them loot the the NDDC dry.

But refuting the report, the First Lady in a statement by her media assistant, Mr. Ayo Adewuyi described the report as a hoax by the opposition targeted at misleading and recruiting unsuspecting Nigerians to portray her overbearing and meddlesome.

Adewuyi noted that the said report is “dubious, diversionary, unfair, unkind, and therefore totally unacceptable” because Dame Patience “did no such thing”.

The statement reads in part:

“We make bold to say that the piece is nothing but a hoax, aimed at misleading unsuspecting members of the public, recruit them into their hate campaign against the First Lady and to again portray Dame Patience Jonathan as an overbearing and intrusive woman against her well known passion for peace and advancement of the course of women and children in Nigeria.

"Nigerians are very conversant with the workings of the National Assembly regarding passage of Budgets. Parliamentary process requires that the Appropriation Bill goes through First Reading, Second Reading and Third Reading and subsequent harmonization by the two chambers.

“One then wonders at which level of this process the First Lady influenced the passage of NDDC Budget that warranted her being paid 3 billion Naira for the alleged “Consultancy” Therefore, it will be impossible for one single person to influence its passage or is the author trying to indict our law makers?”