President on Thursday alleged that the bomb attack on Eagle Square Abuja on October 1, 2010 when Nigeria was celebrating her Golden Jubliee was aimed at assassinating him.
According to him, the leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) Henry Okah was paid to carry out the botched dirty job.
Jonathan spoke as he flagged off his presidential campaign in Lagos.
Okah was arrested, convicted and sentenced to jail in South Africa, where he had sought refuge after the dastardly act.
Jonathan was reacting to an alleged endorsement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari by MEND, with newspaper reports suggesting that the group had dumped the President.
“The leader of MEND is one Okah, who is a South African prison.
“Okah is in a South African prison because 1st October 2010 when we were to celebrate our 50 years of independence, Okah was procured by some Nigerians to assassinate me and Okah bombed Abuja.
“The attempt was to assassinate me but intelligence investigation from the South African and Nigerian intelligence system roped him in that plan to assassinate me and they say MEND dumped Jonathan,” he said.
The President then asked his crowd of supporters, “Okah that wanted to assassinate Jonathan, will he support Jonathan?”
President Jonathan also accused some unidentified former leaders of not funding the military since the take-over of government by the military in 1983.
He equally replied his critics who accused him of not being firm, saying he cannot run a jungle government.
