OKONJO-IWEALA DESCRIBES AS BASELESS ALLEGATIONS OF “ILLEGAL DIVERSION” OF ABACHA FUNDS
SAYS THIS LEVEL OF PERSECUTION AND HARASSMENT UNPRECEDENTED, SIGNALS DANGER OF FIGHTING CORRUPTION IN OFFICE

As part of the campaign of falsehood against former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala by Edo Governor, Adams Oshiomhole and other powerful and corrupt interests, another baseless story has been published by some online media. To achieve their evil propaganda objective of tarnishing her name, these evil elements have distorted the contents of a memo dated January 20, 2015 in which the former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala responded to a request by the former National Security Adviser, Col Ibrahim Dasuki (retired) for funds to prosecute the terror war against Boko Haram.

Here are the facts:

· The central responsibility of the Minister of Finance IS to find sources of funding for the financing of approved national priorities such as security, job creation and infrastructure.

· It will be recalled that 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.

· In fact, the Ministry, on several occasions, had to call press conferences to provide details of budgetary spending on the military, to show, against the background of limited resources and other urgent national priorities, that it was doing its best on funding security.

· It was about this time that some new Abacha funds of about $322m were returned with another $700m still expected to be returned. (This is not to be confused with the Abacha funds returned in 2005-2006 under the Obasanjo government whose use for developmental purposes was monitored by the World Bank as earlier explained by Dr Okonjo-Iweala).

· Former President Jonathan set up a Committee comprising of 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.

· 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 $322m for the military operations, while the expected $700m would be applied for development programmes as originally conceived.

· Following the discussions and based on the urgency of the NSA’s memo, Dr Okonjo-Iweala requested the President to approve the transfer of the requested amount to the NSA’s Office for the specified purposes.

· But, as captured in the memo, 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
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.
· The attempt to link the former Minister’s name to any misuse of these funds for any purpose other than security as far as she understood it is totally false and cannot stand.
Paul C Nwabuikwu
Media Adviser to Dr Okonjo-Iweala

http://www.forumspotz.ng/ngozi-okonjo-iweala-denies-diverting-n61-4-billion-abacha-loot-read/

Guy woman

Accuse And Deny Game All Over The Country.

We need to hear both sides, before analyzing , deducing and forming responsible,unbias and intelligent opinions on national issues.

Madam Puff Puff is a FAT liar

How can you say that the money was borrowed funds? The obese woman even said that she was not part of the security council? But all the money voted to the Military and Security Agencies had to go through your office mama?

Where was the oversight? You are a irresponsible woman and should be ashamed of yourself.

Can you try this at the World Bank? NO!!

You willfully participated in the financial crimes against the Nigerian people. Stop making useless excuses!

Corrupt fat woman.

NOI the chief liar. She even adviced them to treat the money as borrowed.Borrowed how, at what percentage interest and to be paid when. This her obsession with her name is pitiable, she has no name, not in Nigeria, not in Heaven. Only those that don't know her outside and those she works for (World Bank,IMF and co). See as she leave Dasuki and GEJ for oh god OYO.

Madam continue soaring...

They will come in 7 ways nd be scattered from 49 wayz..

We know them, they use Media to pull people down but re trying to threaten us with jail to avoid the media.

They re Uwa Mmebi pharisees...

I believe Madam gele. She can never be guilty.

She set herself up by taking all those foreign appointments. If you know your hands were not clean, go quietly and wait for karma. These same Oyinbo hailing her will chew her raw if she is caught red handed with proof.