Former President Goodluck Jonathan has cried out over alleged threats to his life.
This is coming after a breakout group from the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), the Refromed Niger Delta Avengers (RNDA), linked Jonathan to the NDA.
But Jonathan, in a statement on Sunday by his media aide, Ikechukwu Eze, said the list by the RNDA was political, adding that it was part of an attempt to assassinate him.
The statement read in part, “Since it is not in our place to speak for all those named in the obvious fabrication, we are only intervening to the extent that its hidden intent poses a violent threat to the life of former President Goodluck Jonathan, a committed patriot.
“We are seized by the feeling of déjà vu occasioned by the resurrection of one dim character masquerading as Cynthia Whyte, who had in the past served as the spokesperson for a notorious group that had all along shown its hand to be going after the life of former President Jonathan.”
He added, “Do we need to remind anybody that the so-called Cynthia Whyte is the self-declared spokesperson for the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, a violent and murderous underground group led by one Henry Okah, which has not hidden its intention to destroy the former President?”
He further said: “We have no doubt in our mind that MEND, as a group contracted to go after Jonathan with the mind of assassinating him, has yet to abandon this criminal and ignominious craving. It is in this light that we view the purported statement issued by Cynthia Whyte as not only a sadistic continuation of this sick desire, but also a futile attempt to instigate the Federal Government to needlessly go after the former President.
“Those who have been following the unsavoury developments in some parts of the country since the last general election would have noticed that MEND, its paymasters and other unscrupulous elements in the South-South region have been striving fruitlessly to exploit the ensuing confusion by surreptitiously working for the fulfilment of its yet-to-be declared political agenda.
“We are not under any illusion that more accusations and allegations of this nature would not be hurled Jonathan’s way in the future. But we are very positive that he can never be fazed by such negative energy.”