First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, yesterday challenged anyone with evidence of corruption against her to make it public. She threw the challenge at her critics while addressing thousands of Edo women and supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party at a rally organised by her NGO, Women for Change and Development Initiative, as part of moves to garner massive support for President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of the March 28 presidential election.
At the rally held at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin, the state capital, she stated that she attained her current position in life by dint of hard work, accusing her critics in the All Progressives Congress of practising ‘politics of bitterness’ and acting as agents of corruption.
She said her office had not received any fund from government for its activities. “Mrs. Jonathan is the first lady of this country. There is no budget, no constitutional rights. So if from tomorrow you hear Mrs. Jonathan is corrupt, am I holding your money? Are you giving me any budget ? I don’t have any budget attached to my office. Go and probe my office. Go and probe me and see whether there is any budget attached to my office. Go and probe and see whether there is any money they send to my office. I don’t touch your money. Whatever I have, I struggled for it. I worked for it. I suffered for it,” she said.
The first lady also accused the state government of fixing the visit of Hajia Aisha Buhari, wife of the APC presidential candidate, Maj- Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, for the same date and venue as hers. The APC presidential candidate’s wife’s visit has, however, been cancelled. “Edo people you need to be peaceful. APC is a party of troublemakers; abusers, propagandists. They heard that I was coming, they went to fix their own (event). If I hear they are somewhere, I won’t be there. They have not been bringing women, now they want to bring a woman because they want to make trouble,” she stated. She added, “The days are gone when old people will continue to dominate.
This is your time young ones. The youths are the future leaders and the old must give way for the youths. If Mr. President finishes his eight years, he will return to his house.Whatever he wants to do for Nigeria, he should finish it now. Others were there for eight years, so, it is our (Jonathan/Sambo) turn. Others have done their eight years, why is our own different? We will finish our eight years.”
Meanwhile, a policeman and two women fainted at the rally due to exhaustion. They were quickly carried out of the crowded venue in stretchers by a team of stadium officials and party members into an ambulance and rushed to an undisclosed hospital in Benin for urgent treatment. Also, two suspected hoodlums were arrested yesterday inside the stadium for removing the banners and posters of the first lady while the event was going on.
They were beaten to a pulp by angry party supporters and handed over to the police while their suspected accomplice managed to escape. Amid the heat and confusion, most of the women who looked frail and exhausted, having been at the stadium as early as 7am, left the stadium in droves.
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