Former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has been accused of illegally taking $1 billion from the federation account to prosecute the re-election bid of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Edo state governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, made the accusation in Benin on Monday at a Seminar with the theme “enhancing IGR in Edo, issues, prospects and challenges,” organized by the state government for Permanent Secretaries, Directors and Deputy Directors.
The Governor said the former Minister also needs to tells Nigerians how the Excess Crude Account was drawn down to $4.1 billion from the peak of $10 billion when no approval was given by the National Economic Council for any withdrawals.
“President Jonathan as far as the law of Nigeria is concerned, or any President, his approval is limited to funds of the federal government, not funds of the federation. Funds of the federation can only be approved by Governors and representative of the President as reflected in the composition of the National Economic Council, which is made up by Governors and chaired by the Vice President, with the CBN Governor and Minister of Finance and others as members
He said that Okonjo-Iweala would have been declared a pathological liar if she were a witness in court due to the inconsistencies in her statements, adding that a forensic audit would truly determine how much was illegally spent from the federation account under her watch as Minister.
Addressing the seminar participants, Oshiomhole said the state government would now hold Permanent Secretaries, Directors and Deputy Directors responsible for any fraud detected in their departments saying the government has trimmed down the cost of running government.
“The truth is, many things went wrong even at the federal level. As you might have read in the papers, while the federal government, under Goodluck Jonathan, with the then Coordinating Minister of the Economy liked to blame “Governors” for wasteful spending, for not saving for the rainy day, for not investing properly, the truth is the real weakness in the Nigerian federal chain has been the Federal Government. Our hope is that with the new President, given his pedigree we will break from the past.
“As I’m sure you will soon begin to hear when all the numbers are published, last week, I complained aloud that Edo State lost about N10 billion over a four year period from only one source the NLNG remittance to the federation account.
“How did I arrive at the figure? I used my 4-Figure Table and I asked myself at $2.1 billion remitted by NLNG as taxes and Shell, and by the way, Shell is not the only oil operative, we have Chevron and several others. They shared the $2.1 billion based on the revenue allocation formula, Edo State got about N2.27 billion. So I said, thank God this money came after the departure of Okonjo-Iweala and President Jonathan. If the PDP were still in charge in Abuja, this money would have been taken.
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View Comments (22)
It’s really despicable
that people like Oshiomhole and co resort to social media to tarnish the image of Dr Ngozi Okonjo in public.more sad is no
one really gives a toss about you lot neither do you guys feature on the grand
scheme of real news or world issues/happenings.this crave for unnecessary
attention & publicity by unknown/irrelevant people really needs to
stop.bloggers please stop encouraging these losers & time wasters & use
your medium for “live issues and relevant issues,
This little man called Oshiomhole talks too much. Is he done stealing from Edo state treasury corruption indeed! Who started it? IDIOT!!!!!!!!
Oshiomole seems to lack strategy or new thinking for his new administration. That is why he is all over the media blaming the previous government and giving lame excuses for why things are not going on well in Edo state.
These are mere distractions and excuses. The new government needs to get to work and get busy, stop pointing accusing fingers at the previous administration.
If the allegedly stolen money was used for former President Jonathan’s campaign, why not face Jonathan himself, confront him and charge him to court, instead of soiling Okonjo-Iweala’s name?
How could you accuse Okonjo-Iweala of stealing funds as if all her activities had not been very open all the while? We are all aware of how she introduced the policy of publishing monthly allocations, how she put systems and processes in place to curb leakages, how she maintained her stance against all forms of corruption even in the face of stiff opposition etc. Now, how do you come around to suddenly say that kind of person stole billions of naira overnight? Oshiomhole got this one wrong.
Read the submission again and try ( I appreciate this can be hard often times for some people) to think dispassionately in a patriotic manner.
It is rather unfortunate that a governor like Oshiomhole, who is supposed to be a statesman is the one cooking up baseless allegations to heat up the polity. This is totally unnecessary and irresponsible.
No matter how far lie travels, truth will eventually catch up
with it. The integrity, diligence, honesty and transparency with which Dr Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala managed the economy are evident to all. Her work and track record
will continually speak in her defence.
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has done Nigeria nothing but good.
All these attempts to drag her name in the mud are ill-calculated and cannot
succeed
I guess all the comments here are from the cyber soldiers of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. And I wil plead we attack the governor of Edo state cautiously.The last time Oshiomhole accused Okonjo-Iweala of spending ECA money without lawful and constitutional authorisation, she first accused Oshiomhole of lying. Hours after, she recanted and said the approval came from President Jonathan. Oshiomhole is not a reckless leader and I strongly believe that he knows what he is talking about, after all he is a member of a committee probing all the illegal spendings from ECA.