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President Goodluck Jonathan has not only abandoned those who helped him up the political ladder but has also meted out the same treatment to his brothers and sisters, it has been alleged.

In his explosive interview with Sunday Sun published yesterday, Alhaji Mujahid Dokubo Asari, one of Jonathan’s best known Ijaw kinsmen and one of his biggest supporters, accused the Nigerian leader of having abandoned his siblings.

Dokubo, who is close to the Jonathan administration, alleged that the president’s half brother, Chief Meni Innocent Jonathan, died out of neglect. Meni, it would be recalled, died last month (precisely on Nov. 20) at the National Hospital, Abuja, after a brief illness at age 45.

According to Dokubo, “Why would Jonathan be even totally cut off from his own siblings to such an extent that his brother did not die of cardiac arrest or cancer but he died of ordinary malaria?” . . . He died of acute malaria and typhoid.”

As reported last night by News Express, Dokubo, who is the leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), in the interview also castigated Jonathan for abandoning those who helped him become president. Dokubo cited former President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Information and Communications Minister, Professor Dora Akunyili, Pastor Bakare, Professor Wole Soyinka, Chief Edwin Clark, Professor Ekpebu and Joshua Fumudoh as examples. He warned that Jonathan would fail in his desire for a second term in 2015 unless he retraces his steps.

Late yesterday, presidential spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati, told newsmen in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, that Jonathan has no problem with Obasanjo. He, however, was silent on the others mentioned by Dokubo and did not also comment on Jonathan’s alleged abandonment of his extended family members.

•Photo: President Jonathan.

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