The immediate
past Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Monday denied withdrawing
$1bn from the Excess Crude Account to finance the campaign of former President
Goodluck Jonathan.
In a statement by
her Media Adviser, Mr Paul Nwabuikwu, the former finance minister described the
allegation by Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State that she spent $1bn out of
the ECA to fund the re-election bid of Jonathan as a “ludicrously false
statement that has unfortunately become a trademark of the Governor in his
public campaign of falsehood.”
The statement
said the comment by the governor was “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.”
It reads in part,
“He has, within the last few months, asked Dr Okonjo-Iweala to explain all
kinds of totally wild and unsubstantiated figures, ranging from $30bn, $20bn,
$2.1bn, N720bn and now $1bn.
“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 $2.1bn 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 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.”
The statement
said the Finance Ministry under Okonjo-Iweala regularly published details of
revenue allocations from the ECA in national media.
“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,” she said.
-Punch