The newly inaugurated National Economic Council, has accused former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, of spending $2.1bn from the Excess Crude Account without authorisation.
The Council, which is chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, made the accusation after the NEC’s 58th meeting in Abuja on Monday, June 29.
While speaking to State House correspondents, Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole said: “We looked at the numbers for the Excess Crude Account. The last time the former Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, reported to the council, and it is in the minutes, she reported by November 2014 that we had $4.1 bn.”
“Today, the Accountant-General Office reported we have $2.0bn. Which means the honourable minister spent $2.1bn without authority of the NEC and that money was not distributed to states, it was not paid to the three tiers of government.”
Within 2012 and May 2015, it was also discovered that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation earned a total of N8.1 tn but remitted only N4.3tn.
As a result of these anomalies, the Federal Government has constituted Oshiomhole, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai; Akwa Ibom State Governor, Udom Emmanuel; and Gombe State Governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo, into a panel to probe the NNPC and the ECA between 2012 and May, 2015.
Its my view that if any transaction or transactions within the mentioned period is not clear to the present administration especially when it bothered on finance,NOI, should be probe. There’s nothing wrong with it. Probe is not arrest but just a way of asking somebody saddled with responsibility in a public office to explain what happens.
Rubbish. And you can’t rubbish a woman who stands shoulder high above you in all ramifications of integrity. Cheap blackmail.
Dr. Okonjo Iweala has always been a crusader for change, growth, transparency and transformation of the Nigerian economy. She is a patriotic Nigerian who has selflessly served this nation and nothing can change that not even your misgivings and unfounded allegations