Okonjo-Iweala Withdrew $1bn To Fund Jonathan’s Re-election –Oshiomhole

Okonjo-Iweala Withdrew $1bn To Fund

Jonathan’s Re-election –Oshiomhole

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has

accused the former Minister of Finance, Dr.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of illegally taking $1

billion from the federation account to

prosecute the re-election bid of former

President Goodluck Jonathan.

Speaking at a seminar organized by the Edo

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 $10

billion when no approval was given by the

National Economic Council for any

withdrawal.

The theme of the workshop was: “Enhancing

IGR in Edo, Issues, Prospects and

Challenges.”

Oshiomhole, who said Okonjo-Iweala would

have been declared a pathological liar if she

were to be a witness in court due to the

inconsistencies in her statements, said a

forensic audit would truly determine how

much was illegally spent from the federation

account under her watch as minister.

He 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.”

However, the former minister described

Oshiomhole’s allegations as the “kind of

ludicrously false statement that has

unfortunately become a trademark of the

Governor in his public campaign of falsehood

against Dr Okonjo-Iweala.”

A statement by Okonjo-Iweala’s aide, Paul

Nwabuikwu, said that the statement by

Oshiomhole “is just another example of the

numerical diarrhea that seems to have

afflicted His Excellency in recent times in his

effort to damage the reputation of the former

Minister.

“He has, within the last few months, asked Dr

Okonjo-Iweala to explain all kinds of totally

wild and unsubstantiated figures, ranging

from $30 billion, $20 billion, $2.1 billion,

N720 billion and now $1 billion.

“To say the obvious, the accusations are

totally lacking in credibility.”

Okonjo-Iweala also said that Governor

Oshiomhole’s published comments also

contain other falsehoods, such as that the

minister and the Finance Commissioners of

the 36 states approved the spending of $2.1

billion out of the Excess Crude Account,

adding that the Commissioners had disowned

the statement.

Nwabuikwu said that Dr Okonjo-Iweala never

said the Federation Accounts Allocation

Committee (FAAC) approved spending out of

the ECA. “Rather as the Commissioners

themselves stated, the former Minister of

State Finance informed them that former

President Jonathan approved the expenditure

to end the debilitating fuel queues across the

country.

“As Nigerians know, the Finance Ministry

under Okonjo-Iweala regularly published

details of revenue allocations from the ECA in

national media.

“So Oshiomhole’s tortured “calculations”

based on his “four figure tables” are mere

political numbers conjured to achieve a

political purpose. Nigerians can see through

the elaborate antics.

Nwabuikwu insisted that Governor

Oshiomhole’s latest statement, like earlier

ones, labours to give the impression that the

entire FAAC process which involves the

Federal Government and the 36 states of the

Federation is a personal monopoly of Dr

Okonjo-Iweala.

“This is, of course not true. FAAC is a long

standing national platform for allocating

revenues chaired by the Minister of State

Finance. The governor’s insistence on

pushing this clearly fictional narrative

underscores his desperation.

“It is instructive that Governor Oshiomhole is

a key member of the committee set up by the

National Economic Council to investigate the

ECA spending.

“His continuing attacks against Dr Okonjo-

Iweala seem to suggest that he has lost

confidence in this platform which he deployed

to make some of his initial false and baseless

allegations.

“The Governor does not seem to appreciate

that he is undermining the very credibility of

the committee.

“Once again, we ask: why are Oshiomhole and

his cohorts so ready to sacrifice truth,

precedent and decency in this political witch

hunt against Dr Okonjo-Iweala?,” the

statement queried.