Former Finance minister Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has described Governor Adams Oshiomhole's accusation that she spent $1 billion out of the Excess Crude Account to fund the re-election bid of former President Goodluck as stupid and unfounded.
According to a statement released by the Media Adviser to the ex-minister, Paul C Nwabuikwu,
on Monday, July 13, the Governor's claim is another round of false
campaign against Okonjo-Iweala, which he has embarked on for months.
"The
statement 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," the communique said.
Read full statement below:
"The allegation by Governor Adams Oshiomhole of
Edo State that former Minister of Finance Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala spent
$1 billion out of the Excess Crude Account to fund the re-election bid
of former President Jonathan is 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.
The
statement 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.
Governor
Oshiomhole’s published comments also contain other falsehoods. For
instance, he quoted Dr Okonjo-Iweala as saying that she 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. This is also a complete distortion.
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.
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?
We are confident that they will fail because truth will triumph."
