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Former
Minister of Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
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•Arms scam is breach of
trust, says Buhari
•Oshiomhole insists on
ex-minister’s trial
Former Minister of
Finance Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala yesterday confirmed that she approved the transfer
of US$322 million Abacha loot to former National Security Adviser (NSA) Sambo
Dasuki to prosecute the fight against Boko Haram. But she said it was a loan.
The Nation report continues:
Dr.
Okonjo-Iweala has been under attack, mainly from Edo State Governor Adams
Oshiomhole for allowing expenditure without authorization.
Through
her media adviser, Paul Nwabuikwu, in a statement last night, the former
minister said: “Some new Abacha funds of about US$322 million were returned
with another $700m still expected to be returned. Former President (Goodluck)
Jonathan set up a Committee comprising the former Minister of Justice, former
NSA and the former Minister of Finance to determine how best to use both the
returned and expected funds for development.”
Mrs.
Okonjo-Iweala said at the meeting, “the NSA made a case for using the returned
funds for urgent security operations since, he noted, there cannot be any
development without peace and security. Based on this, a decision was taken to
deploy about US$322m for the military operations, while the expected US$700m
would be applied for development programmes as originally conceived.”
Mrs.
Okonjo-Iweala stated that based on the urgency of the NSA’s memo, she requested
former President Goodluck Jonathan “to approve the transfer of the requested
amount to the NSA’s Office for the specified purposes.”
Mrs.
Okonjo-Iweala, referring to the meeting’s memo, said she “insisted on three
conditions: a. only a part, not the entire Abacha funds, would be spent on the
arms; the rest would be invested in developmental projects as originally
conceived b. the money was to be treated as borrowed funds which would be paid
back as soon as possible and c. the NSA’s office was to account for the
spending to the President who was the Commander-in-Chief, given the fact that
the Minister of Finance is not part of the security architecture and does not
participate in the Security Council.
“Throughout 2014, there
were public complaints by the military hierarchy to President Goodluck Jonathan
about the inadequacy of funds to fight the anti-terror war in the North East,
resulting in Boko Haram making gains and even taking territories. A lot of the
criticism was directed at the Federal Ministry of Finance under Dr
Okonjo-Iweala which was accused of not doing enough to find funds for the
operations.”
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Edo
State Governor Adams Oshiomhole
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Okonjo-Iweala Should Be Included In
Probe, Says Oshiomhole
The
Nation reports that Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole yesterday said former
Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,
should be joined in the probe of the US$2billion arms procurement scandal.
The
governor said the arms deal scam linked to the former National Security Adviser
(NSA), Sambo Dasuki, is a tip of the iceberg and one of the leaking points in
the past administration.
He
alleged that the past administrations engaged in “arrangee stealing”.
Oshiomhole
spoke at the State House in Abuja after a meeting with President Muhammadu
Buhari.
He
said: “The NSA is supposed to be an advisory officer; he is not supposed to be
a procurement agent for government. I am happy the figures are coming out and I
know that this is a tip of the iceberg and I read some reports, the numbers are
in billions, Dasuki is just one bleeding point; there are several bleeding
points in the system.
“You
look at the total number of expenditure on subsidy which the World Bank has
just released figures; about how many trillions of Naira over the past four to
five years,” he said
On
Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, the governor said: “I am shocked. I have been talking about
it, I just said to a couple of persons, the government has to go the whole hog,
because I know as a governor that no money gets out of the treasury even after
I have approved as the governor without the approval of the Commissioner for Finance;
so the probe should go into whether all these monies are appropriated all of
it; when the money got out of the treasury, through who? The Minister of
Finance under the rules must endorse before money gets out of the treasury,
before the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) approves.
“So
for the Ministers of Finance, including Okonjo-Iweala, I don’t care what people
say because you cannot be coordinating a corruption-ridden economy and you
pretend to be an angel, you cannot selectively deal with issues; you must deal
with all involved in the conspiracy. In criminal law when two to three people
are involved in an act of criminality, all of them are charged with
conspiracy.”
“Now
if you lay your hands on the various appropriation bills passed by the National
Assembly and see how much the National Assembly appropriated for subsidy for
all those periods, you will find out they are not even up to half of what was
spent.
“This means that money not appropriated for was spent. If people are involved in those acts, they must be brought to justice,” he added.
“This means that money not appropriated for was spent. If people are involved in those acts, they must be brought to justice,” he added.
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