Oshiomhole accused the former minister of spending $1billion of government money for Jonathan's re-election. She has responded. Read the press statement below...
Another false, baseless allegation against Okonjo-Iweala by governor Oshiomhole
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.
Paul C Nwabuikwu
Media Adviser to Dr
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
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