A civil rights activist, Tonye Bob-Manuel, on Sunday lambasted ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, for allegedly allowing his godson, George Turnah, access to public funds.
Turnah, now under probe by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, fled his palatial Kolo Creek mansion in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State when operatives stormed the place and ransacked it for several hours.
Reports have linked Turnah’s investigation with his alleged involvement in the disappearance of huge sums of money allocated to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
But Bob-Manuel in a statement issued in Port Harcourt, castigated Jonathan for setting up George Turnah for what he said had now amounted to self destruction.
“What manner of godson is George Turnah to Jonathan”, he queried.
Bob-Manuel said the flamboyant lifestyle of the former Special Assistant on Youth Matters to the NDDC Managing Director since 2012 triggered his investigation.
He lamented that although Turnah was no longer a government official, he moved around with heavily armed mobile policemen and army personnel in a long convoy with personalized plate numbers.
According to him, in 2015 alone, George Turnah, donated 15 Prado Jeeps to all the traditional rulers in his Ogbia Local Government Area.
Bob-Manuel stated that how Turner came about his sudden wealth remained a mystery.
“Clearly this is not a product of hard work or any known form of creative enterprise.
”George Turnah’s only claim to wealth was his relationship to former President Goodluck Jonathan, simply because he warmed himself into Jonathan’s heart when he founded the Jonathan Youth Vanguard, popularly called ‘Joy 2011’ a platform he used to mobilise support for Jonathan in the election of that year”, he said.
For this effort, Bob-Manuel claimed that Jonathan conferred on Turnah the national honour of Member of the Niger (MON) at the age of 27 and was also appointed a Special Assistant to the Managing Director of the NDDC in 2012.
Turnah is said to be putting structures in place to run for House of Representatives ahead of the 2019 elections.
Turnah vied for office of Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, just before the party’s botched convention last year, a move believed to have the backing of Jonathan.
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