PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari's former running mate Pastor Tunde Bakare has accused the government of former president Dr Goodluck Jonathan of continuously seeking to bribe him with favours while it was in office. 

In 2011, Pastor Bakare ran alongside President Buhari in the presidential elections as the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) vice presidential candidate. He said things got so bad that he wrote a four -point letter to Dr Jonathan, calling his attention to the level of impunity in his administration. 

According to Pastor Bakare, the government also bribed several other prominent Nigerians and he has challenged them to come out and declare what they got. He added that on one occasion, the former president offered to give him something, which he refused and opted for a pen instead.

Pastor Bakare said: “Let everyone declare what he has received as I can tell you what I received. I took two people there one day and he invited us to dinner but as I had a bad sore throat that day, I took a pass regarding the dinner.

“On another day, I took a couple there and I took a cup of tea and I told you about the $50,000 which I refused but that was Orubebe. He then sent me a cow at Christmas, which I gave the staff to kill and a hamper through our pastor in Abuja but I told him to keep it.”

 He added that one day, after a meeting with Dr Jonathan, the former minister in charge of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Orubebe, rushed to offer him $50,000 for transport, which he turned down. Pastor Bakare said he told Mr Orubebe that he was not for sale and left him without taking the money. 

“When Jonathan became president, I said to him, the things we marched and protested against, you are now perpetrating them, the same impunity. I gave him four points in writing and before we left Lagos, I gave a copy to Pastor Adeboye and another to General Alani Akinrinade," Pastor Bakare added. 

Pastor Bakare has challenged Nigeria's religious leaders to declare what Dr Jonathan gave them, saying the clergy did not tell the former president the truth because they benefitted from him. He added that Christian leaders benefitted tremendously from his administration in terms of licences and waivers. 

"The thing is, when you allow those in power to get you into any compromise, speaking to them will be very difficult. If you have benefitted from evil, you cannot talk about it, nor criticise it, so let everyone declare what he has received,” Pastor Bakare said.