Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former Finance Minister,
has stated that Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state is suffering numerical
diarrhea after he alleged that she took $1billion to fund the re-election bid
of former president Goodluck Jonathan.
In statement issued by Paul C Nwabuikwu, media adviser
Okonjo-Iweala, he described Oshiomhole’s accusations as “another false,
baseless allegation against Okonjo-Iweala by 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 said.
“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.”
Okonjo-Iweala then stated that Oshiomhole’s accusations
totally lack any 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,” the statement read.
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