Former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has declared her support for President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption war, saying that she was ready to subject herself to an for unfettered government probe of her two terms in office.

Okonjo-Iweala, who was reacting to media reports that she was allegedly planning to build a multi-million dollar Okonjo –Iweala family hospital in Abuja, denied having such ambition.

Okonjo-Iweala, who spoke through her spokesperson, Paul Nwabuikwu, described the allegation as ‘totally baseless’ as ‘the alleged hospital is non-existent’.

“Dr Okonjo-Iweala has a clean record of two terms in office. As we have consistently maintained, she is not afraid of a transparent investigation of her two terms in office. She supports the anti-corruption drive in Nigeria. No one who has had the privilege of serving his or her country should feel too big to be investigated.

“It is this very issue of fighting corruption that brought her back in the first place and she has a track record of blocking corruption. It is ironic that it is those same corrupt people who are trying to tarnish her image,” he said.

He also denied the existence of any hospital owned by Okonjo-Iweala’s immediate family although he confirmed that Okonjo-Iweala’s husband, Ikemba Iweala, who retired recently as a neuro-surgeon and emergency physician with over 40 years’ of practice in Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States, was actually planning a hospital.

Nwabuikwu explained that to actualize his desire to give back to Nigeria, Iweala had, for several years, been working on plans to establish a hospital in Abuja, using his savings to develop the concept and design of the hospital.

He said that Iweala had made efforts to source for financing for the project, pointing out that it was the prototype design and website of the yet to be realized project that was being published as a multi-billion dollar evidence of corruption against the former minister.

“Anyone who is in doubt can go to Gwarinpa, Abuja where the hospital is allegedly located, or enquire from General Electric and Perkins + Will Global, the two organisations that were mentioned as Consultants to the project in the report as to whether the hospital has been built.

“Why is Dr Okonjo-Iweala the object of this ceaseless campaign of falsehoods and distortions? The answer is simple: because she refused to steal and share, and because she blocked many powerful people, some of whom are now in power, from stealing. That is why they would go to any lengths to tarnish her name.

“The hospital idea is still very much alive. Anyone who is interested should please come forward to discuss possible investment. But there is a condition: the money must be clean. Corrupt people, especially lying governors, need not apply,” he explained.

Janeth J